Luna's Helping Hand
by Rex Tims
Summary: Luna Lovegood has only one person she considers a friend and will go to extreme lengths to help him, including helping him find love with as many women as he can and convincing him it's the right thing to do.
1. Love is the Power

Summary and general description

Luna Lovegood has only one person she considers a friend and will go to extreme lengths to help him, including helping him find love with as many women as he can and convincing him it's the right thing to do.

This story centres primarily on Harry, Luna and the girls she ropes in. There's currently plans for Ron bashing, a rather selfish and desperate Ginny, so not a good idea if you like either of them. Dumbledore is painted as harmless and Snape won't be overstepping his duties as a teacher once the story gets by the introduction stage (that is, Harry's "harem" is established.) The base of the story is romance and humour, most likely with smut later on, though I haven't set it in stone yet.

That's all from me, enjoy.

* * *

Luna Lovegood was a myriad of things. She had been bestowed with the unaffectionate nickname of Looney, but it was one of the few things she was not. Her life revolved around furthering the world through unique observations, even if her revolutions were shunned due to who she was.

Speaking of things she was, emotionally crippled was chief among them. The last time she remembered feeling true emotions was when she slowly watched her mother die after the creation of a new spell went wrong. Her sorrow ravaged her soul until she was numb, shedding no more tears since that God-forsaken day. A bit eccentric before, the incident pushed the poor girl further into her own world, alienating her only childhood friend. Her father struggled with his wife's death and was barely there for himself, let alone his fragile daughter.

So, rather than directly interact with the world, little Luna Lovegood took on the view that staying invisible or, at worst, unimportant would allow her to unravel the ills of mankind and allow her to heal them. Further she withdrew, creating a lens of fiction around herself that distorted herself and focused others.

Five years later and her fortress of solitude had only the one resident beside herself. That odd-defying, insanely fantastic, knight-in-shabby-armour that was Harry Potter would happily chat away to lonely Luna Lovegood about all the nonsense she made up, treating her like he did any of his other friends. The closest thing to a crumbling wall in her façade occurred when she dreamily mentioned the loss of her school items in passing and, rather than give her a bit of sympathy as she had predicted, a fire stirred in his eyes that melted her to the core. That single look had been the closest to an act of kindness in so many years and had such passion behind it that it left her lost in his emerald eyes.

She had been afraid that night, afraid that the taste of friendship would turn bitter. Despite her sensibilities forbidding any mutual affection, she couldn't convince herself that Harry "Just Harry" Potter would ever hurt her, either through mistaken actions, his own inactions or even if she went and kneed him in the groin. Of course, she would never do that, but it was a purely hypothetical exercise.

Enough about Harry for now though since he was simply another brick in her foundations. Many mistakenly presumed her dreamy expression was her detachment from the world. Rather, her permanently glazed expression let her soak up all the world had to offer at every moment of time. Her thirst for sight matched that for knowledge. Despite only being in her fourth year, she was quite confident that the theory side of most NEWTs would be simple enough, though her casting was a bit behind since she could never find someone to help her get the wrist movements correct, not that she asked around either.

By far her favourite time was meals, specifically dinner. It had less to do with the food, even if it was a vast improvement from her father's attempts at cooking and her own which passed as edible, and more to do with the people. If one were to open their ears as much as she did, they would be astounded by the sheer volume of data that poured through the air. Listening quietly, she could discover intimate details about a rather cute boy or get alternate solutions for homework problems or learn that someone's great aunt had just had a stroke, but was recovering well thanks to some muggle medicine. It was a bonus that most people who had set their sights on demolishing her indifference would have to behave in the presence of the staff.

So far, laidback Luna Lovegood could be summarised as broken, alone and observant, but don't you agree that so much is lost in summaries?

There are many more parts to Miss Lovegood that I could spend hours detailing. Her love of animals of questionable existence; her dry wit; her obsessive tendencies; her gentle nature. For now though, what I have said will do and it's from here that I will start.

You see, little miss lonely Luna Lovegood was having what she would most certainly class as a worse year than usual. A certain pink-frock-wearing toad had found some perverse delight in having students write lines with their own blood, carving into their skin with every movement. As far as our lioness Luna Lovegood went, it wasn't unbearable and most certainly on par for where she saw her life heading.

However, caring Luna Lovegood, whilst sitting quietly and enjoying her meal, picked up a crumb of a story. Her brave knight-in-shabby-armour was being ridiculed for telling the truth and forced to do more writing than healthy given the loss of blood accompanying it.

She struggled between anonymously telling him to use healing balms to mend the skin and protect from infection or confronting the devious Ms Delores in hopes of her seeing reason. Whatever crazy idea she came up with, none would solve the problem and it pained her that in his time of need, she couldn't help the selfless, heroic "Just Harry" like she knew he would.

After devouring her repertoire of knowledge, albeit mainly gossip, she could only come up with one person who could possibly have the authority, ability and empathy to help.

So, late that night, she crept through the school, acutely aware of the roaming schedule of those out to catch mischief makers. When she stopped before the stone gargoyle, she bowed low and asked, 'Henry, may I please see the headmaster?'

After it gave a nod, the stone stepped aside and granted access to the revolving staircase. The door was ajar, but with no sounds inside. She bravely entered, taking a seat on one of three set before the oaken desks, waiting in the silence and gentle glow of a phoenix. Even if it took till morning, she would not leave this room until she was confident that either Harry would be helped or that Dumbledore couldn't help him.

Her inquisitive nature begged her to investigate the wonderful whirring contraptions scattered across the room, but she held strong in her patient waiting.

That was until a hint of silver called her.

She glanced across, a sliver sparkling through slightly open cupboard doors. Like moonlight caught in a bowl, it glistened and pulled Luna's attention, unwilling to release it. She wasn't sure how long, perhaps hours or perhaps minutes, but she found herself mere inches from it, wanting nothing more than to touch the miraculous fluid. At some point in clicked that what it was was a memory in a pensieve and the thirst for knowledge pounded for release.

Timidly, she stretched a finger, daring only to brush the surface, but that little was enough and the ground leapt from beneath her feet as she tumbled into the cool embrace.

All of a sudden, she was standing back in Dumbledore's office, only now Harry and Dumbledore were joining her. There were many differences she noted, mainly the lack of a few bits and bobs in the memory. Based on how Harry looked, it must have been his first or second year, but the unusual stiffness he moved the one arm with suggested it was the second year.

Hearing the story of a boy against a basilisk had always been her favourite of his adventures.

When Harry left, still very tired looking despite being released from the infamous nurse's care, the headmaster continued to sit in silence for a few minutes before retrieving the very same pensieve she was currently in. He placed it on his desk and pulled a silvery strand from his temple, placing it in the bowl before tapping a sequence of runes, resulting in a ghostly projection.

Luna instantly recognised a younger version of Professor Trelawney and knew nothing good was about to happen – as a supposed seer every prediction Trelawney ever made involved death, except for when she once predicted sunshine on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of October some eleven or twelve years ago according to a seventh year Ravenclaw in her own first year.

In an echoed and off-sounding voice, the projection declared, '_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he __will have power the Dark Lord knows not.…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…_'

There was another few minutes of silence, until the Dumbledore quietly spoke. 'Harry James Potter. Son of Lily Evans and James Potter, who fought and lived through three battles against Voldemort. Born at the end of July and with an unquestionable mark given. A poor boy with the weight of the world on his unsuspecting shoulders. To suffer such hardships and continue to love so strongly, it truly is his greatest power. I... I just wish it could be done another way...'

Luna found herself becoming incredibly disorientated as the memory faded into a swirl of supernatural mist, obscuring her view to barely her feet until it started to fade into focus, repeating what had first happened when she entered. Accepting there was no more knowledge, Luna began to will herself out of the pensieve, happy at how straight forward magic was when she staggered back into the room.

Time seemed to have barely moved while she had been in there. Apart from a curious glance from the phoenix, no one seemed to notice her miniature adventure, which was surprising to her considering the usual nosiness of portraits and so deduced that Dumbledore wished her to see it, having set everything up and it would no doubt be moments until he "arrived" and pretended like he did nothing.

'Ah, Miss Lovegood may I be of help?'

'Yes, sir, you may, were and will be in the future – I'm sure of that much.'

Having gotten all the information she needed, she promptly exited the room, leaving a bemused Dumbledore who suspiciously eyed everything on display.

'She hasn't touched my lemon drops, has she Fawkes?'

The headmaster let out a sigh of relief when the phoenix shook its head.

Meanwhile, Luna was busy walking back to her dormitory wondering how best to utilise what she had gathered. What was obvious was that Harry would be needing a lot of help if love was his greatest weapon, considering he hung around with the rather jealous and envious Ronald. She had no qualms with Hermione, but doubted she imbued Harry with a feeling of love, rather a feeling of worthlessness and lack of self-confidence after spending years being told how much more he needs to be focusing on his studying rather than growing into a strong, independent man. Hopefully Neville spent more time with him when in the tower as Luna was certain the shy boy would easily become like a brother considering their similar nature and possibly their shared fate if that Halloween so long ago had gone a little different.

However, she quickly came to a startling realisation. Harry already had the love that comes from deep friendships and the love of that between siblings given his virtually adopted state where Weasleys are concerned, but he didn't have the love of that between lovers. Given the large area that was sex magic, Harry could be missing out on life-saving weapons by being as celibate as a monk. The only problem she had now was thinking who would make a good lover for him or, at the least, someone he could love as an attractive and sensual being.

Instantly, she removed a good proportion of the school. Harry didn't need a fangirl to make him feel like he was taking advantage of his fame or a bossy girl to dominate him. A gentle soul with the same life ambitions would be just what he needed to have comfort and the prospect of a future to keep him motivated.

His life ambitions were sacred to her, because when he had told her, she felt like no truer words had been said, as though he had pulled out his heart and handed it to her and told her to cut it open and prod at what was inside.

'_I want a family, a large family. I want a small house in the country, with room __in the garden __to go flying and do a bit of gardening and play with my children. I want a wife who loves me for being "Just Harry" - not the youngest seeker in a century, the boy-who-lived, the co-winner of the __T__riwizard tournament, just Harry James Potter, who still gets self-conscious about his hair being messy and his scar being ugly. I want a __pet dog that the children can ride on when they're small and be their best friend __and an owl for each of them so they can always write to me__. I want a little pond so I can dip my feet in it on warm days and maybe go ice-skating on when it freezes over. I want a muggle television to watch sappy movies on cold, winter nights and a muggle sound system to fill the countryside with music when the Potter's host their renowned annual summer barbecue. I want to be a stay-at-home dad, so I'm around to get my little princesses anything they want or take my little guys fishing, camping and all that stuff dad's do with their sons. When they're going to school, I want to be that father who embarrasses their kids by crying like a baby when I see them leave, only to cry again when they come back so grown up. I want to be __there to see my sons bring their first girlfriends home and tease them mercilessly until my wife steps in to scold me and threaten to have me on the couch. I want to be there to declare to my daughters that no man will ever be good enough for them, so they should give up trying and find a nunnery, until my wife threatens me again. I want to be there to comfort my children when they first have their heart broken. I want to be there at my children's weddings. I want to be at the birth of my grandchildren so I can make inappropriate comments and get away with it since I'm getting on a bit. I want to spoil my grandchildren rotten, especially when it annoys their parents. I want to be that old man who cries when the train leaves, taking away his precious grandchildren and the old man who cries when the train brings them back. I want to embarrass them by telling them how the young women weren't as hot back in my day. I want to sit at the back, bawling when they get married. I want to hold my great-grandchildren and let them know I'll always let them have sweets when they come over. I want to live life surrounded by everything I didn't have, because it is what my father __and__ mother __would have wanted __and, most importantly, __it is __what I want. When I finally can't have what I want anymore, I want it to be on my deathbed, surrounded by generations of Potters crying with smiles on their faces. Even though they know I can't live forever, it still hurts, but they know I lived and loved life so much that death is a cheap price to pay for the happiness they all gave me and that I gave them..._'

So much had happened that night, yet nothing changed. Luna wasn't sure if Harry even remembered telling her, considering how many potions and how much other stuff had gone on the night he returned with Cedric's body. Even Madam Pomfrey missed little Luna when she sat so still and quiet. She hadn't been expecting his outburst when he stirred in the middle of the night, but she could see the pain in his eyes, knowing that a future is what he needed to cling to and was more than happy to be his anchor.

Now, she would be more than his anchor, she would be the wind in his sails, pushing him onwards. She would make sure he had more family than he would know what to do with and make him feel so loved he would be literally glowing from his magic's singing.

Most of the Hufflepuff girls would fit the bill, she thought. His female teammates seemed like a good idea too, given the trust that would already exist between them. Perhaps even a couple of Slytherins could work, even if they would have to be a bit younger since the only realistic one his age would be Daphne and she would stomp all over him. Her sister though would be another story, with the right blend of fan and opponent to keep her in a neutral position. The only Ravenclaw Luna could think of working would be Cho, given their shared passion for flying, but knew that it would be a disaster of a relationship as soon as either of them mentioned Cedric and that would almost certainly be on one of their first dates.

However, thinking of Cho and Cedric brought her back to the Yule ball of the last year, where a certain Mr Potter accompanied one of two girls who came from a magical culture of wives as strong supporters of their husbands and even the possibility of multiple wives, though she would still check that they conformed with their original culture first. Still, it was easy maths: two wives meant twice the number of children. If she was going for easy maths though, then there was no reason to stop at two...

With that, it all of a sudden it became much easier! All she would need to do is throw the bait to the right people and see who would bite. While there were certainly rumours of experimentation, Luna had yet to have a confirmed case of a lesbian or bisexual, but thought that if anyone could break the mould and snag himself a happy harem, it would be Harry "Just Harry" Potter - the sweetest, kindest, gentlest boy, no, man she knew. Of course, simply because he was involved with multiple women, that didn't mean that they would have to be involved with each other – it was just that she knew that pleasing multiple women would create an awful lot of pressure on any virgin, let alone one who struggled with his self-confidence.

At that point, she was in front of the portrait entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. Rather than return though, she had a few pressing questions. After all, it would be unfair to get a girl's hopes up if she wasn't the right type for Harry and right now Harry was up in the Gryffindor tower.

That whole hiding away other house's areas never made sense to her, since anyone with a lick of common sense could deduce, overhear or stumble upon them. Then again, she conceded that common sense was generally mutually exclusive when it came to wizards and witches – even the muggle-borns.

'Good evening Mrs Fat Lady. How are you tonight?' Luna asked the Gryffindor guardian in her light tone.

The portrait in question inspected Luna with narrowed eyes. 'I am alright, my dear, but you do not seem familiar.'

'Oh, well I wouldn't as I'm not a Gryffindor. Speaking of Gryffindor, mimbulus mimbletonia.'

Practically scowling now, the Fat Lady asked, 'Why should I let you in if you're not a Gryffindor?'

Luna frowned, confused, 'But the magic that binds you to the entrance requires you to allow anyone who knows the password embedded in the locking mechanism. It's quite ingenious really, done using what muggles call ciphering techniques since even if they had the correct public password, they wouldn't be able to duplicate the correct magical signature to set the new password.'

Her conversant had changed from annoyed, to surprised, to confused, to apathetic during the short lecture and swung open when Luna stopped.

'Thank you Mrs Fat Lady.'

'You're welcome,' was the muttered reply that Luna listened to before skipping inside. As she had suspected, it was completely empty – Hermione would really take her prefect status seriously, even if she had only been one for a fortnight or so.

Without missing a beat, Luna went to the staircase to the boys' dorms, climbing several flights until arriving at what she abstractly knew was Harry's one. Once inside, she had reached the first gap in her knowledge, however that just made it all the more thrilling.

Some, well, nearly everyone would be mortified at ambushing a person of the opposite sex in the middle of the night to ask personal questions about their preference in sexual partners. Luna wouldn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed, even if she ended up asking Professor McGonagall by a mistaken deduction.

She didn't plan on discussing the teacher's sexuality though as Luna was quite certain she was no longer sexually active, most likely since the death of her husband and children in the last war, so to ask anything of that nature would drudge up memories and emotions Professor McGonagall didn't need.

Putting that aside, she focused on the task at hand. Ron's bed was easy enough to identify from the smear of gravy on the curtains from dinner. Seamus's was also straight-forward thanks to the Irish flag on the trunk. The plant beside one bed suggested Neville's, though it could have easily been a gift given its beauty. Willing to risk it, she accepted that assumption, leaving her with two beds. The one trunk had an emblem she didn't recognise, knowing it to not be that of any Quidditch team, while she also knew that Dean had attempted to get support for a muggle game called football. Harry, as far as she knew, wasn't into any sports other than Quidditch and even then it was more due to his love of flying and Seeker position on the squad than an interest in the droll game.

Keen to confirm her inferences, she took in what she could from the final bed. The bedside table had loose bits of parchments, but checking the name would be cheating in her opinion, while also having what looked like owl treats and so was likely someone who had an owl they cared about enough to always have treats at hand for. His trunk looked a bit beaten, but more from heavy usage than lack of care or attention, which would be explained by someone who kept their life in their trunk. The pair of glasses were a bit of a give-away, but she felt better knowing that she had worked her way up, rather than back, to this particular bed.

Taking the plunge, she strode over to beside the bed, pulled back the curtains and took her wand from where it sat behind her ear. Silently, she cast a silencing spell around Harry's bed and, with glee, jumped onto the end of his bed, landing in a cross-legged position.

Harry jolted up, reaching for his glasses with one hand and the other pulling out his wand. When he could finally see further than his nose, he let out a sigh of relief at the serene girl sitting with a gentle smile that she always had at the end of his bed. While the first time it had happened, simply it being Luna was a good enough reason, so he opened his mouth to say hello, only to find nothing come out.

With a rare giggle, she cancelled the charm. 'Good evening Harry. I do hope you don't mind, but I had some pressing questions to ask you and thought that it was better to do sooner rather than later.'

Still a little groggy, Harry slowly replied, 'Okay, go for it.'

'Thank you. Could you tell me what you find attractive in a woman?' When all he did was stare at her, she thought that he perhaps wasn't sure what she meant. 'I'm wanting to know if you prefer a shorter or taller woman; if you prefer shapely breasts or a firm behind; if something about brunettes leaves you erotically charged. Any fetishes as well would be ideal.'

When he continued to stare, only now stuttering something about not knowing, she let out a sigh, knowing this was going to take a while.

'Okay, I will ask you a question and you nod or shake your head, okay?' He nodded. 'Excellent! First of all, are you heterosexual?' He vigorously nodded. 'If all other features were the same, would a woman's height affect how attractive they are to you?' Blushing, he shook his head. 'If their hair colour was different?' Another shake. 'Do you find obese or overly underweight women more attractive?' After a shiver, he shook his head. 'Do you find women with flat or nearly flat breasts more attractive than those with noticeable breasts?'

Thinking for a moment, and still quite red but seemingly growing accustomed to the conversation, in more ways than one, he asked, 'What would you say is the border of that?'

Without missing a beat, Luna replied, 'Ginny would just be in the noticeable breasts category. If there any specific individuals you wish to know, I would be happy to inform you.' Apparently the specific thought of Ginny's breasts had him paling slightly and Luna committed that to the part of her brain now dedicated to organising a harem. Shortly thereafter, he shook his head. 'Opposite scale, do you find women with very large breasts more attractive? I would put Lavender as the borderline large breasts category.' Surprisingly for her, the thought of Lavender's breasts hadn't turned him bright red again, so she changed her from the "probably no" to "definitely no" pile.

'I don't really mind about size, but something about small breasts make me feel a bit like, erm, well, a paedophile,' he absent-mindedly answered.

'Excellent, just the sort of information I need. Moving on, do you prefer big behinds or pert posteriors?'

Slightly blushing again, he said, 'After seeing my cousin in swimming trunks, big turns me off, but otherwise I don't really mind.'

'Aha. Do you have a preference between a toned or natural body?' He shook his head. 'Any ethnicities turn you on or off?' Another shake. 'Is there anything else I should know?'

His head tilted in thought for a bit before he said, 'A few freckles are kinda cute, but more than that and it looks a little weird. Er, I like nice smiles. Not that I know any, but I don't think I could ever look at a girl with red hair and green eyes without thinking of my mum. Not exactly to do with looks, but I don't like it when girls put on too much make-up.'

'Thank you Harry, you have been most helpful.'

Luna shifted her legs off the side of the bed and pushed herself up, only stopping when Harry said, 'Wait, why did you ask me all that?'

She spared a glance, wondering if he was not-thinking due to being awoken in the middle of the night or due to a larger than normal influx of nargles. 'I am producing a list of girlfriends for you and so need to know whom you find sexually attractive to ensure I make the correct choices.'

'Girlfriend?' he sputtered.

Sighing, she wondered if perhaps the reduced blood flow to his head was causing the problems. 'No, girlfriends.'

'Wh-what? More than one?'

Definitely a blood flow problem, she thought. 'Yes.' She was hoping he would let her leave soon, it was awfully irresponsible of him to keep another girl in his bed late at night when he knew he was about to start dating several others.

'Why?' he half-asked, half-pleaded.

After another sigh, she said, 'So you can discover a new form of love you are not currently familiar with.'

'L-love?' he whispered with confusion and yet yearning.

Luna nodded and added, 'The love between you and your friends is only one kind. I believe you have established a familial love with several Weasley's and a Stubby Boardman. However, you have yet to feel the love between lovers.'

That pesky blood flow problem returned when she said the last bit, though he took on a thoughtful look. 'Luna, I don't think I could handle one girlfriend, let alone more than one. It wouldn't be right to have more than one anyway, I'd be taking advantage of them and-' he abruptly stopped when Luna's finger rested on his lips.

'Harry James Sullivan Potter,' she harshly whispered, 'I will not let you be selfish and deny all those potential women the chance to find the man they love. Considering they will all be perfectly aware of the situation, the only advantage taking will be against the rest of male population, but it's their own fault for not asking before I did. Do I make myself clear?'

Harry gulped and nodded, though still with Luna's finger stopping him from talking.

'Very good,' she said with approval, as though Harry had solved a particularly nasty problem, which he had in a way. Her voice was back to its dream-like norm when she parted, saying, 'Now, I will trust you to remember our discussion and to feel free to tell me any other details or anyone in particular you would like me to ask. Oh and Ron will be very jealous, so I suggest not telling him about it bluntly and instead easing him into it. Then again, I'm not entirely sure what he brings to your friendship.'

Before he could say anything, she was gone and he was left alone, sitting up on his bed in the middle of the night.

* * *

Hermione was worried the next morning when Harry looked tired, as though he missed out on a lot of sleep. She had spent the first five minutes of breakfast looking for any clues, but Harry just quietly ate without talking. Giving up the detective role, she asked, 'Harry, did something happen last night? You're not looking too good.'

He gave her a lopsided smile, showing it wasn't something terrible like a vision from Voldemort or the like. 'It's nothing Hermione. I just had the strangest dream.'

'Oh?' she asked, very curious. 'Tell me about it?'

That he was now blushing, she wondered if she really wanted to know. Well, Harry didn't strike her as the type of boy to have _those_ kinds of dreams and discuss them openly with his best female friend and holding a piece of toast.

'Well, I kinda dreamt that Luna woke me up and started asking me questions.'

Hermione was wondering why that would make him blush... unless either he or Luna were "under dressed" or the questions were particularly "personal". Still, he had said this much, so she decided to push. 'What sort of questions?'

That poke had him ducking shyly. 'Erm, she was asking what I, uh, found attractive in a girl, physically.'

The flustered Harry was quite entertaining for Hermione, so, with amusement, she continued. 'Do I want to know why she was asking?'

He shook his head, though it was to clear it. 'She wanted to set me up with multiple girlfriends and then talked me into agreeing.'

She resisted the urge to tease him by saying, '_Well, a harem would certainly be one of your more exciting adventures,_' or '_Only you would need to be talked into that,_' or, asking a particularly funny-to-her-but-not-so-much-Harry question of '_Did she ask if I wanted to be one __of them__?_' She was quite sure that the last would ensure he wouldn't be able to look at her for a month without blushing. Instead, she settled for the relatively harmless, 'Do I want to know how often you dream of girls jumping into your bed at night?'

After blushing and being thoroughly giggled at, Harry threw his toast across at Hermione before saying, 'About as often as I get up to find you asleep with your face in a book.' He succeeded in getting her cheeks to tinge while she suddenly became very interested in dissecting her breakfast to see what it was made up of.


	2. Introducing Tuesday

Luna had a very busy morning ahead. Like all good Ravenclaws would, and many substandard ones, she condensed everything she had learned. In this case, she summarised Harry's interests as "anyone normal looking" and it wasn't all that helpful. Still, she had to concede that it at least meant she didn't have to scour the less known students to fit a bizarre profile and rather she could establish a ranking and work her way down.

With that in mind, she already had her "first wave" of girlfriends. She thought it a good idea to play it by numbers and so decided that seven girls would be magically powerful and allow each to have a Harry-day every week. After a week or two, she would swap out any that didn't connect well with him. Hopefully she would be able to identify the seven ideal witches, but she knew it was better to plan to fail than fail to plan.

Her first was easy enough. Gliding into the common room, she spotted the witch. They always awoke early to read a bit before breakfast. 'Good morning Padma, what do you think of Harry Potter?'

Padma shut her book and eyed Luna suspiciously. 'Why?' she asked.

'Oh goody,' Luna cheered, clapping her hands together. 'So he did apologise and you did accept. That's good to know, it will make this much easier.'

After a pause, a bemused Padma asked, 'How did you know?'

Luna frowned. She really could forgive Harry for not always thinking, but here was a Ravenclaw who wanted to know how she worked something out without even trying! If Padma had thought about it, she would know that Harry wasn't the kind of person to treat someone badly without apologising nor that, if she were still upset about it, she wouldn't have been so defensive about him would would have started ranting about him instead. So, Luna decided to ignore her question and go straight on. 'I am organising seven girls to be Harry's girlfriends and wanted to see if you would be one of them.'

'What?' Padma blurted out, blushing slightly and switching to confused anger.

Luna frowned again, wondering if there was perhaps something wrong with her voice given that multiple people had now questioned her after stating something perfectly straight-forward. A bit slower and with careful enunciation, she said, 'I am organising seven girls to be Harry's girlfriends and wanted to see if you would be one of them.'

'I got that,' Padma snapped, 'But what do you mean seven girlfriends? Does he think he's something special? Is it because I'm Indian that he thinks I'll be part of his _harem_?' she asked, practically hissing the last part.

That whole not thinking before you spoke seemed to becoming worse by the minute. 'Of course he doesn't think he is special, even though he is. I had to convince him last night in fact to agree to it. I thought your heritage would make you more open to the idea, but primarily chose you because Harry obviously finds you physically attractive while your personalities would be complementary.'

Apparently mollified by part of the statement, Padma, despite being an intelligent girl, was quickly stuttering a denial about Harry's opinion of her body. Luna patiently waited for her to move on and was soon rewarded when Padma regained her composure and asked, 'Anyway, what makes you think I'd want to share Harry with six other girls?'

It was great news for Luna that Padma had admitted she wouldn't mind being Harry's girlfriend and possibly eventual wife since she hadn't protested Luna's lack of a denial when it came to a harem. 'If you both fell in love, he would treat you with more love than any other man here and regardless he will treat you with more respect. He will be kind and generous with his affection once he feels comfortable and he will always do what's best for you, never pressuring you into something you're not ready for nor will he encourage you to do anything you shouldn't.'

The pink tinge to Padma's cheeks was making Luna very happy with how it was going. 'How do you know that?' a rather timid Padma asked.

Luna gave her a short look that she hoped conveyed "Are you a Ravenclaw?" but when Padma didn't seem to understand, she sighed and said, 'What did you think about Harry last year when he returned with Gabrielle Delacour?'

Padma looked confused for a moment, but then the memory clicked. 'I thought he was foolish for thinking any harm would come to the girl, especially when he was the first one down there – he could have easily won the task by a clear margin.'

Saddened, Luna gave her a pitying look. 'Harry wouldn't leave anyone behind. Even though he didn't know Gabrielle, he would sooner die than purposefully risk another's life. That he cares so much for a complete stranger, what lengths do you think he would go to for someone he loved?'

It struck true and Padma was left reeling for nearly a minute as she sorted through her thoughts and feelings. 'That... That's just once he did that...' she pathetically said.

Luna sympathised though and reached over, patting her shoulder. 'At the end of the third task, Harry was used in a ritual to bring Voldemort back to a body. When he escaped, he brought back Cedric's body so his parents would have at least that.'

Padma stifled the twitch at Voldemort's name, but couldn't stifle the sob as she remembered that bloodied and beaten Harry when he returned, somehow holding Cedric's heavy body. Even if Voldemort's resurrection was a lie, which she wasn't entirely sure of despite the media and ministry denying it, she knew that Harry went through some kind of hell that night.

Tilting her head, Luna took in Padma and added, 'You will be able to break up with him if it doesn't work. If it does work, you will find yourself with the man of your dreams.'

Still with the odd tear flowing down her face, Padma nodded and Luna let out a squeal.

'Oh Padma, that's great! We can go down and formalise this once you have calmed down a bit. While we're on the subject though, would you be opposed to having your sister as one of his other girlfriends? I realise that it may be odd, but I thought your background may make you inclined to be odd on this matter.'

It took a few seconds, but Padma burst out laughing. Luna continued to stare at her until she calmed down. 'Sorry, it's just that if Parvati heard that she couldn't date the "delicious" Harry Potter because I said so, she'd hex me into next week.'

Luna frowned, wondering if Padma was being obtuse on purpose. 'I wasn't asking what Parvati wanted.'

Padma wasn't sure why she was being so open, but there was something about Luna's grey eyes that made her feel safe, though the more she answered, the more flustered she became. 'Honestly, I'd prefer it if she didn't, but that's more because she would insist on – this is so embarrassing – us, erm, _sharing_ him if you know what I mean and, well, I don't want, ah.'

Shaking her head, she patted Padma's shoulder again. 'It's okay Padma, I am confident that Harry would step in if your sister tried to force you into a ménage à trois, certainly if you were still a virgin.'

After a good deal of sputtering indignantly and furiously blushing along with mutterings of dates and kisses and no mentions of sex, Padma calmed herself with deep breaths. 'I'm ready,' she quietly said, casually straightening her robes and fixing her hair.

'Goodie, this should be fun, I've never gone down to breakfast with someone else before!' Luna cheered, grabbing Padma's hand and pulling her across the semi-empty common room and through the portrait, down the corridor and stairs and only slowed when they were approaching the great hall. Checking on Padma, she asked, 'Are you okay? You are incredibly flushed and panting heavily, which I wasn't expecting until a little after you had officially become Harry's girlfriend at the earliest.'

Padma scowled at the joke, but quickly realised that Luna wasn't joking and was, in fact, perfectly fine after the long run. 'Just... tired... from... the... run...' she managed between breaths.

Luna gave her an inquisitive look, but was satisfied by that answer – not everyone had as much experience running away after rare creatures like she had. Once Padma's breathing settled down and the crimson tinge to her cheeks receded, she said, 'Let's go.'

Happily pulling her along, Luna strode into the hall and, without changing direction at all, headed straight for Harry and Hermione, who were sitting in silence, Hermione paying more attention to her eating habits than was usual. She felt Padma's hand tighten in her own and wondered why, though not very much as they were nearly behind Harry now.

Hermione glanced up during their walk over and, after seeing Luna dragging an unusually shy Padma, she couldn't help but hope that things were going to get much more interesting and infinitely more amusing. When Harry noticed, he asked, 'You okay?' She nodded, grinning, and pointed behind. Frowning in confusion, he looked behind and said, 'Oh bugger.'

'Language Harry,' Hermione scolded, though it was offset by the laden mirth.

'Good morning Harry! I've found you your Tuesday girlfriend,' Luna cheerily said, leading Padma to a seat on one side of Harry before taking the one on the other side. 'I'm sure you remember, but not to rely on assumptions where possible, this is Padma Patil, a fifth-year Ravenclaw who is currently top of your year and enjoys reading for pleasure as well as strolls around the lake while the sun sets.'

Demurely, Padma said, 'Hello Harry.'

Hermione had been relishing in the maroon Harry had turned, up until Luna suggested that she wasn't top her of year. Being the polite girl she was, she waited for Luna to finish and Padma to get in a short greeting before parroting, '"Top of your year"?'

Luna nodded. 'Padma scored the highest marks in your year for her Charms, Transfiguration and Ancient Runes written portions, while being either second or third in all other subjects. Her practical side was a little behind, but her lowest position was fifth in Herbology. Using a standard scoring system of ten points for first, nine for second and so on, she beat you by seven points, mainly due to your slump in performance when it came to the Defence practical that saw you in ninth place in the year despite near-perfect wandwork.'

Though he was still immensely embarrassed by having been set up with a girlfriend by Luna, Harry found some consolation in Hermione's mixture of outrage and disappointment at not being top of the year as well as a healthy mix of curiosity as to how Luna got the information. She eventually settled on huffing indignantly and saying, 'I guess coming second to a Ravenclaw is okay. I'll have all year to get to number one for the OWLs anyway since I won't be researching dragons and all that...'

'Sorry, but you're third,' Luna said, genuine sympathy in her eyes. 'Daphne got three more points than you. Though she was only first in the Defence written portion, she was consistently second or third in all others.'

'Oh great, two Ravenclaws I have to beat. Merlin...'

Padma, slightly disgruntled at Hermione's assumption that she could be out-studied, interrupted saying, 'Daphne Greengrass is a Slytherin.'

'A Slytherin? So she cheated, that's okay though. She won't be able to cheat her OWLs.'

'Hermione!' Harry harshly said. 'Do you even know her?'

Looking annoyed, Hermione replied, 'No, but...'

'So, because she's a Slytherin and she did well, she obviously cheated?'

'Well, yes, but...'

'So, even though you spent a lot of the year, when you weren't helping me out, studying, you obviously cheated, because you're a muggle-born and muggle-borns aren't good at magic?'

Luna and Padma could quite easily see where Harry was going, but Hermione was blinded by rage and coldly whispered, 'How dare you Harry!'

'No, how dare you Hermione! I expect Ron to blindly call Slytherins slimy bastards, but I thought you liked evidence and facts before making decisions? From where I'm sitting, you just accused someone you don't know at all of cheating because she did better than you and because she's a Slytherin.'

Gulping, Hermione mumbled something about being sorry, completely forgetting to chide Harry's swearing.

'Now, I think you also owe Padma an apology, since I doubt she liked you saying the only reason she was top of the year was because you were helping me with the tournament,' he paused, raising his hand to stall Hermione's response, 'Whether or not that is true is not the point. You would hate it just as much if someone said the same thing to you and you know it.'

Having the decency to look embarrassed, Hermione meekly said, 'Sorry Padma.'

'Apology accepted,' Padma replied, forcing a smile.

'She's not usually this silly,' Luna said, then tilted her head slightly before adding, 'I think it may be either Wrackspurts or her time of the month.'

Padma and Hermione both choked in surprise, while it took Harry a moment longer to catch on and joined them. Luna noted though that Hermione didn't deny the suggestion.

'Anyway, as for the initial reason for my being here, Padma has agreed to be Harry's Tuesday girl.'

Harry groaned, rubbing his temples as he tried to think of a way to get through this without offending someone. 'Luna, as great as Padma is, I'm not looking for a girlfriend and certainly not a girlfriend for every day of the week.'

'But Harry, we talked about this last night,' she tiredly replied, as though it were a conversation about whether or not it rained last year on the same date and they had already agreed it hadn't.

'Yes and this morning I was telling Hermione that I thought it was a strange dream. I wasn't thinking properly at the time when I agreed, so I didn't really agree, did I?'

'I guess not,' she said, disappointed. 'Though, if you couldn't think properly then but could think properly now, have you come up with counter-arguments?'

He muttered to himself, before finally saying, 'Your points were that I wouldn't be allowing my girlfriends to possibly find love and that I wouldn't be taking advantage of them since they would know what they're getting into.'

'Yes. So, why are they no longer true?' Luna seriously asked, her big silvery eyes focusing intently on Harry.

'Well, erm, I...' he trailed off before turning to Hermione and asking, 'Help?'

Though a little flustered from her earlier telling off, Hermione nodded and started thinking. 'Ah, each girl would only get to see Harry once a week, so they wouldn't have enough time, especially as Harry will have to be doing a lot of studying for his OWLs.'

Luna nodded along while Hermione was talking and then turned to look passed Harry. 'Padma, would it bother you if you only had a few hours outside of lessons every week where you could kiss Harry senseless and help him do a bit of studying?'

Before she answered, Padma had a thought, one that said Luna was much more on top of everything than she thought Luna was. For starters, while she knew practically nothing about Luna, Luna accurately described her favourite past time of reading fiction and her evening ritual of taking a relaxing walk. That she also had access to the entire school's exam results, something most Ravenclaws would give up their first born, or more, for, was also quite a shock.

Finally, the exact words Luna had used hit her. 'Well, with the four hours of shared lessons as well, I don't think it would be a problem.' Sparing a glance at his still rosy-cheeks, she coyly added, 'It should be fun watching him use his wand.' She couldn't believe she said it, but quite liked the deeper red Harry turned (even if she was definitely blushing just as much) as well as the spluttering from both sides of the table.

Luna was happy that Padma had started using her brain and continued on, saying, 'Well there we go Hermione.'

'But... but it's wrong,' Hermione weakly said.

Tutting, Luna asked, 'I thought you were through making claims without factual or logical evidence to support it?'

'Erm, won't people think poorly of them?'

'Well, I can't speak for Padma, but I honestly doubt the added title of polygamist detracts from Harry's image as a lying, attention-seeking, mentally unstable threat to society as far as the Daily Prophet and gossip queens are concerned.'

Padma added, 'I... have had unsettling rumours spread about me in the past. I learnt that I only had a few friends then and they are all I care for. Though I have not asked, I am confident they will support me, otherwise they would not be my friends, would they?'

'I...' Hermione muttered before looking at Harry, gently shaking her head. 'I've got nothing Harry, you're on your own.'

'Great, all that's left is for Harry to ask Padma out and we can continue with the day.'

Hanging his head in defeat, Harry turned to Padma. 'Well, Padma, erm, if you're sure you really want to go out with me, um, I guess that would be okay.'

Frowning, Luna clouted the back of his head. 'Harry James Sylvester Potter, that is not how you ask a girl out! For starters, the way you make it seem like you don't want to must be deeply upsetting for poor Padma. After all, how would you like it if someone asked you out by saying that "it would be okay"? I can't believe that the Harry I know would be so callous! Try again.'

'Okay, okay, sorry Padma.' Taking a deep breath, Harry looked up to meet Padma's eyes and smiled slightly before saying, 'Padma, would you do the honour of going out with me, even though I'm not that handsome or funny or kind or strong or – ow! What did I do wrong that time?'

'Well, Harry James Simon Potter, Padma here has agreed to share you with six other women because I told her just how amazing you are and I refuse to let you insult me by making me a liar.'

Sighing, and rubbing the back of his head, he caught Padma's amused eyes again and put on a bit of a bigger smile. 'Padma, a wonderful woman such as yourself requires an equally wonderful man to accompany you and I was wondering if you would let me be that wonderful man?' With an audible crack this time, he turned around, glaring at Luna, and spat, 'Dammit woman, I'm trying my best!'

'Harry James Steven Potter, don't you take that tone with me! That last try sounded like something Draco Malfoy would say, not the dashing young man in front of me. Now, try again and stop being an idiot or I'll go get Pansy since she has a thing for you.'

Glancing at the Slytherin's table, he couldn't suppress the shudder. 'Okay, I get it.' Shaking off the fear, he turned back around to Padma and looked her in the eyes again. Slowly breathing in, he asked, 'Padma, you were a wonderful date last year, even if I was a bit of a twat. Now, I am slightly more mature and ready to make it up to you and be your boyfriend, if you'll let me?'

After finishing, he kept his eyes focused on Padma, though he kept ducking slightly as though expecting another swat. It didn't come, so he was pleasantly relieved when Padma said, 'I accept, Mr Potter, under one condition.'

Frowning slightly, he asked, 'What is it?'

Fearful, she leant forwards and gave him a quick kiss on his lips. 'That condition,' she said after sitting back up, both their blushes back with a vengeance.

'It-it's reasonable enough,' he stuttered, then, with only a slight push on his back from Luna, he leant in and gave Padma a return kiss, slightly deeper than their first but still just a peck. Pulling back, he asked, 'Was that satisfactory?'

'Yes,' she hastily said, smiling down at her lap. Timidly looking around, she was pleased that it was still fairly empty and without any teachers, even if most people were still looking at them.

Not much above a whisper, Harry said, 'Um, Padma, I'm new to this whole boyfriend thing, so if I do something stupid that I'm not supposed to or anything like that, could you let me know and I'll try not to do it again?'

She smiled and slowly reached for his left hand with her right. 'Only if you do the same for me.'

'Really?' Harry asked, surprised. 'I thought someone as pretty as you would have had at least one boyfriend by now.'

'Beautiful, Harry,' Luna chided. 'You call girls pretty, but young women are beautiful.'

Harry rolled his eyes, getting a giggle from Padma. 'She's right, but I appreciate the compliment, handsome.' Pausing slightly, mainly to take in his slight blush, she asked, 'Do you not know the rumours I spoke of?' Harry shook his head. After a sigh, she hesitantly said, 'they can be summarised as "The Patil twins are a set" and I found myself... often crowded with unwanted attention. My sister... took the rumours better than I did.'

There was a slight pause before Harry asked, 'Did you want to eat breakfast together?'

She smiled in appreciation, answering, 'Yes, that would be lovely.'

He pulled a plate over for her and Luna as well. Padma couldn't help the smile as she held onto his "pretty" compliment. It warmed her as she doubted the shy boy beside her gave out many compliments, even indirectly, and had no doubt received few back if "handsome" embarrassed him.

There wasn't much conversation as they ate which she didn't really mind as she wasn't much for talking nor could she think of anything to talk about at the moment. Of course, she did get a few odd looks from arriving Gryffindors, but if any lingered too long, Harry would reach over and give her hand a squeeze on the tabletop and that was enough to move them on.

It was that little gesture that quelled the tiny doubts she had remaining.

When they had finished eating, Hermione asked Harry, 'Did you finish your charms essay?'

Harry nodded and Padma, happy to help, offered, 'I can look over it if you want.'

His smile was infectious as he turned to face her. 'Are you sure?' She nodded. 'Great, I'll go get it.'

'I should get my stuff for class too,' she said.

Already standing, Harry offered her a hand up and her cheeks held a slight tinge while they started walking out, continuing as he held her hand up the stairs. 'Erm, did you want me to walk you there?' he asked, his nervousness bleeding through.

'Not this time, I'll meet you in the library,' she said and then leaned in to whisper, 'I can walk by myself, but I'll appreciate it if you offer to carry my bags.'

'Will do,' he whispered back before giving her a peck on the cheek, leaving them both blushing. They separated at the third floor, Padma taking a corridor west while Harry began climbing more stairs. In no time at all he was opening up his trunk, getting his charms and transfiguration books as well as an extra quill and bottle of ink.

When he was about to leave the dormitory, a sleepy, 'Mornin' Harry,' stopped him.

He felt guilty as he realised he had completely forgotten about his best friend. 'Hey Ron.'

'Why've you got your bag? I haven't missed breakfast, have I?' Ron asked, growing alert and slightly scared.

Harry shook his head. 'I'm just going to the library for a bit before class. You've still got an hour.'

'You shouldn't scare me like that mate,' Ron said, falling back down on his bed. 'What's Hermione dragging you to the library for anyway? We got charms done and there wasn't anything for transfiguration, was there?'

'Erm,' Harry uncomfortably said. A few of Luna's words from the night before were coming back and he desperately hoped she was wrong. 'I'm not going to the library with Hermione,' he said, getting a curious look from Ron. 'Padma offered to look over my charms essay and I accepted.'

'But, why would Padma want to look at your homework? She's a Ravenclaw and, no offence mate, but you're not exactly getting outstandings.'

Slightly ruffled, Harry refrained from being hasty, reminding himself Ron was just being honest and he didn't mean to offend. Taking in a deep breath, he said, 'Look, there's no easy way for me to say it, so I'm just gonna tell you. This morning, I asked Padma out and she said yes.' Ron looked like he was about to interrupt, so Harry held up his hand. 'There's more. I... I'm probably going to have a few more girlfriends, seven in total. I know this is gonna be hard, but I won't be able to spend as much time with you as before.'

There was a minute of silence when Ron despondently said, 'But I'm your best mate.'

'I know,' Harry softly said, ruffling his hair, 'But this is something I want to do. I've seen how happy your parents are together, how happy my parents looked together, and someone helped me realise that that's what I want. It's not going to be easy for us at first, but I still want to be your friend. We'll work something out, I promise.'

Ron stared at him blankly. 'Who am I gonna play chess with? Or talk about Quidditch with? Hermione's good for homework and all that, but she's boring.'

Harry sympathised, he really did, but it was being tested. 'Just because she prefers reading to Quidditch doesn't mean she's boring. Besides, I've seen you play chess with Seamus and Dean's a Quidditch fan, isn't he?'

'It's not the same; they're not you!' Ron angrily declared. 'We're best mates! You should've asked me before asking anyone out.'

'I should've asked for your permission to date?' Harry asked, disbelieving.

'Yeah! It's, like, a best mate rule.'

Cocking an eyebrow, he asked, 'Like it's a best mate rule to never betray your best mate?'

'Exactly!' Ron happily said, but quickly turned downcast with mild anger. 'Oh here we go again. Look, I apologised about that, didn't I? What more do you want me to do? Are you gonna bring this up every time? Haven't I made up for it?' he shouted.

Harry ruffled his hair again, struggling for the right words. 'I know you apologised and I forgive you, I do, but, it's like, you owe me. So, to pay me back, just drop it, alright? I'm not gonna stop seeing Padma because you're upset about it. For once, I'm doing something to make me happy and, I guess, I was hoping you'd be happy for me, even if it wasn't what you wanted.'

'You want me to be happy for you? You're throwing me away, after everything I've done for you and you want me to be happy?'

'Look, Ron, that's not what I'm saying! I promise you, if you still want to be friends, I'll make some time for us. It won't be much, but I don't want to end this. It'll only work if you can accept that you won't be the most important person in my life anymore.'

Ron paced across the floor, looking at his feet. 'Is it something I did?' he asked.

'No, it's me. I've changed; it's not your fault.'

'Am I not good enough for you anymore? Is that it? It is, isn't it?'

'Look at me Ron! It's not you, it's me! I swear, I wish I didn't have to choose, but I do. I won't lie to you, it was an easy choice to make, because I want to be happy, I do. I'm sorry that what makes me happy makes you unhappy, but I think I've done enough to be a little selfish, don't you?'

Ron didn't say anything.

Sighing, Harry went to the door. 'I'm sorry Ron, I truly am. I'll give you some space until you work this out, but I meant what I said and I won't change my mind.'

Walking to the library, the conversation played heavily on Harry's thoughts and it wasn't until a concerned Padma tapped his shoulder that he snapped out of them.

'You okay? It looked like you were imperiused,' she joked.

He managed a smile. 'Sorry, it's just, Ron was awake.'

'Oh,' she said, not really understanding.

'He didn't take the news too well. I'm giving him time to think it over before he decides anything, but I'm not sure if we'll stay friends.'

'Oh dear,' she added, the situation clear now. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean-'

She was cut off by Harry. 'Don't be. This was going to happen eventually and I am sad about it, but I made it clear to him: either he accepts that I've got a girlfriend, well, girlfriends and I'll make some time for him or he doesn't accept it and we're no longer friends.'

Unsure of what to do, she smiled reassuringly and gave his shoulder a squeeze. 'How about we look at your essay?' she suggested.

'Sure,' he replied, thankful for the change in topic. The time until lessons began was pleasant, Padma offering a much softer approach to critiquing his work compared to Hermione, often phrasing them as suggestions or finding relevant parts in textbooks for him to read.

In the end, he felt like he had really improved it and, more importantly, he made sure to pick-up Padma's book-bag. She smiled, letting him know she appreciated it with a squeeze of his hand.

On their way out, Harry nervously said, 'Thanks for the help.'

'Not a problem,' Padma happily replied. Just like that, Harry was looking forward to class for the first time he could remember.

* * *

Small note: For ease of use of writing, Padma went with Harry rather than Ron to the ball. Also, this has taken longer to put up, but with all the positive reviews, I found myself overwhelmed with fear of lowering the quality of the story, so I've been working ahead a bit, with the next chapter already written and the one after nearly finished. With the extra bit of polishing time, I hope this was worth the wait and if not, I blame the Wrackspurts that have infested my pet mistletoe.


	3. A Little Class

It was a short walk to the classroom and, when they were near, most of the Ravenclaws and some Gryffindors were already there. 'I'll just be a second,' Padma whispered, releasing his hand and dashing over to her friends.

Harry felt quite uncomfortable under the scrutiny of those present and the occasional glancing and giggling from the gaggle of girls surrounding Padma wasn't helping. She didn't spend long before returning and standing at his side, much to his relief.

They used the last few minutes before Flitwick arrived to discuss what they thought the lesson would be about. Hermione arrived, practically dragging Ron, at the last moment, managing to tag onto the end of the line going in, while Harry let Padma take them over to her preferred seats that were just right of the centre of the room. It pained Harry when Ron refused to look in his direction, going as far as to take Hermione to the edge of the classroom as Harry and Padma.

The only solace from his tingling regret and remorse was the wonderful witch beside him and the start of the lesson. To completely put the negatives out of his mind, he focused on the lecture – after all, he was dating a Ravenclaw and it was the least he could do.

Ten minutes later, he was very happy he had. 'So, now it's time to put the theory to the test! Remember to limit your silencing spells to a small area as it is a terribly draining spell if cast incorrectly and casting a silent _finite_ is in next year's syllabus.'

Harry was quick to his feet, offering his hand to Padma. He wasn't exactly sure why they needed to stand for this, but he was more than willing for the chance to get a smile out of Padma – it worked too.

'Did you-' they both said at the same time, smiling sheepishly and motioning for the other to go.

Padma conceded and asked, 'Would you go first?'

'Are you sure you don't want to go first?'

Shyly, she said, 'I'm, erm, it's okay, you can go first.'

His lopsided smile appeared as he tentatively raised his wand and repeated the motions – a jab – and incantation, '_Silencio!_' while concentrating on the area he wanted silenced: the immediate area around Padma's head.

He was rewarded by a subtle silver glow. It was supposed to be colourless, or produce a pale white glow if it was cast with excessive magic. Still, when Padma's mouth opened and no sound returned, he felt proud – it wasn't often he cast a working spell on the first go.

'_Finite,_' he quickly added.

'Thank you Harry and that was great! I mean, what I heard was a bit fuzzy, but I couldn't speak and that's what's important.'

Puffing up a bit further, he said, 'Thanks. I was really surprised it worked that well, but it was a bit off – do you know what I did wrong?'

An adorable dimple appeared on her left cheek as she thought. 'I think your jab had a tiny flick, because your pronunciation was correct. Try again; I'll go once we get you sorted.'

Nodding, he focused on her head again, this time keeping his wrist level as he jabbed and said, '_Silencio!_' There it was; for a fraction of a second a pale white cloud hung around Padma's head before disappearing with him incanting, '_Finite._'

'A little strong, but otherwise perfect! On your second go too – I didn't know you picked up new spells so easily.'

Bashfully looking down at his feet, he replied, 'I don't normally, but, erm, I think it's because I paid more attention than usual.'

She smiled, guessing why he put the extra effort in. 'Well, it's still impressive and now I've got all this pressure on me,' she gently teased. 'Now, _silencio!_' A barely noticeable tinge appeared around Harry's head, but it was distorting, the edge rippling. After a few perilous seconds, it seemingly burst.

'Wow, I think you nearly got it – that was much better than my first go.'

'You shouldn't sell yourself short. It's easy to do the movements – the intent is the hard bit and you had that down without a problem.' Sighing, she added, 'It's always the intent for me. I guess it's because, even after nearly sixteen years, magic is a bit surreal.' Her eyes drifted off until coming upon her partner and she shook her head. 'Sorry about that. _Silencio!_'

Again there was a subtle disturbance around his head, but the bubble was more stable, though still fluctuated. It held for longer before breaking down again. Seeing her look a little dejected, he grinned and said, 'You know, it's really weird when it does that – it's like there's a wind blowing in my ear.' Getting no reaction, his expression dropped. 'Sorry, that wasn't very good at cheering you up, was it?'

'No, but I appreciate it,' she quietly said, her wand idly swishing as she thought.

Biting his lip, he decided to give it another try. 'Well, you said the problem was intent – maybe you just don't want to stop hearing my lovely voice?' Her lips twitched. 'There we go,' he said, her frown breaking into a weak smile. 'So, to solve your problem, I should start talking about something you don't like. Are you a Quidditch fan?'

'I wouldn't say fan,' she carefully said, figuratively tiptoeing given that she was talking to the youngest Hogwarts seeker in a century with a near perfect record.

With a crooked grin, he said, 'Relax, I don't mind if you don't like it; I enjoy it more for the flying than the sport if I'm honest. After all, three out of six matches have nearly had me killed – a jinxed broom, a deranged bludger and a horde of dementors.' Seeing her paling slightly, he hastily moved on, 'So anyway, until you silence me, I'm going to have to keep naming random Quiditch things, starting with the Wronksi Feint and then there's...'

Meanwhile, snapping back to action, and having an added incentive of stopping the unimportant ramblings, she fiercely jabbed her wand and incanted, '_Silencio!_'

Just like that, his voice ceased though his mouth moved. She wearily eyed the distortion, though relieved to see the edge rippling much more timidly than it did before. Quickly, it evened out in a smooth sphere.

'_Finite,_' she said, releasing a beaming Harry from silence.

'See, all you need the right motivation – it was perfect that time!'

Apprehensive, she replied, 'It was still shaky at the start.' He frowned at first, though it quickly changed to a nervous half-smile.

Behind her, Flitwick said, 'But it smoothed out. I'm afraid I must concur with Mr Potter.'

Spinning around, she said, 'Th-thank you sir.' The petite professor gave her a smile before moving on to the next pair and Harry let out what she thought was a sigh of relief, though she wasn't sure why. 'And thank you Harry,' she quietly said.

'I'm just glad I could help.' His own lopsided smile was back in place.

Then that was it for charms as the rest of the lesson past by quickly, with a bit more practicing and a lot more theory. Before they knew it, the two of them were walking out, hand in hand.

'Come on, we've got a bit of a time until transfiguration and I want to introduce you to someone special,' Harry said, leading her towards the main staircase.

She wanted to ask who, but held her tongue as she instead tried to work out where they were going. He was taking her up the stairs, so they could be heading to Gryffindor tower, but she doubted they would end up there as he could've introduced them this morning. There were a couple of offices for the teachers, but she didn't think they were their destination as she didn't think there was a member of staff that he actually spent any time with outside of lessons.

'I know it's a bit silly,' he added when they were nearly at the seventh floor, 'but, well, I guess I really do think and have always thought of Hedwig as my best friend.'

A smile broke as she thought that the owlery was up here.

'Hagrid bought her for me as my first ever birthday present.'

Something seemed very wrong about the statement, but she couldn't think what while still listening.

'During the summers, she's the one that keeps me from going crazy. I should warn you that she can be a bit feisty and protective, but she'll probably only attack me since I haven't seen her since we got here. Honestly, Hermione always jokes that she isn't sure who the pet is and who the master is, but me and Hedwig have always known that she's the master.'

A quote rolled through her head, '_Do not judge a man by how he treats his equals, but by how he treats his inferiors._' 'I'm looking forward to meeting her,' she truthfully said, getting a squeeze of her hand from him.

Entering the room, it felt like all eyes were on them. Harry was looking somewhere in particular though, so she tried to copy and viewed a patch of a wall of feathers with the odd pair of eyes scattered around.

'Come on Hedwig, I've got someone here to meet you.' A bark sounded back and she could've sworn she felt him cringe. 'I'm sorry I haven't stopped by, honest, but I've been a little busy. That bloody toad woman really hates me and it is OWL year, so the professors have been giving us loads of work.'

'_Is he making excuses to his owl?_' she thought.

Another bark was sent back. 'I know that doesn't make it better, but I'm really sorry.' He fidgeted around in his pocket and pulled out his hand, offering it up with a few treats on it. 'I brought you your favourites, those funny bacon flavoured mouse things.'

There was another short, sharp bark. His hand stayed up, though it was shaking slightly, until another bark sounded and was accompanied by flapping wings. 'Oh, she's gorgeous,' Padma cooed when Hedwig swooped down, pecking a treat out of his hand.

He chuckled. 'She loves being complimented.' Watching the owl, Padma thought that was probably true by the way she preened herself on the nearby stand. 'Oh and don't tell Hermione I said this, but I'm pretty sure Hedwig is the cleverest girl around and I'm sorry, but she's definitely the prettiest.'

She giggled and couldn't help but agree with the latter, though she wasn't sure if he was joking about the former. 'I'll forgive you this time, but you're not allowed to say any other girls are prettier than me, okay?'

'I think it would be a struggle to find someone more beautiful than you,' he sheepishly said and she couldn't help but blush at that compliment. A bark pulled their attention back to the owl and Harry immediately went over to stroke her. 'Sorry Hedwig, but I've got a girlfriend now and I have to be careful not to upset her.' Leaning over, he mock-whispered, 'I bet she knows loads of hexes to use on me if I mess up.'

Her laughter came easy and he seemed to glow with a sense of pride. She liked the Harry she was with now, the one who was hen-pecked by an owl and a bit cheeky to boot. 'Curses are more my thing,' she countered, casually taking her wand out and twirling it slightly.

'See girl,' he continued loudly whispering, 'I'd better be nice to her otherwise I'll end up in the hospital wing and won't be able to come see you.'

She could've sworn Hedwig rolled her eyes, but she didn't think owls could. Pecking at his hand again, Hedwig gobbled the last of his treats and flew back into the air. Rather than return to her high up perch though, she landed on Padma's shoulder, freaking Padma out until Harry gave them both a "calm down" motion.

Now still, Padma nervously awaited Hedwig's decision as she felt like she was being judged by an overly protective mother. After what was like an hour for her, especially as she looked into the golden eyes that were staring at her, Hedwig bobbed her head and took off to the rafters.

'She approves,' Harry happily said to Padma, before looking up and adding, 'I'll make sure to come and see you over the weekend, okay?'

Hedwig barked, apparently in answer to his question. Before she could muse about the implied intelligence of the bird, Harry was over and holding her hand. She caught on and they walked out together, making their way down the stairs and specifically to the transfiguration classroom when the bell sounded during their descent of the second set of stairs.

They didn't talk outside the classroom, but Padma felt like they were closer and not only physically. She could feel the pressure on her arm as they leant together slightly, more bodily contact than at first. Also, she couldn't dismiss the idea that Hedwig was very much a surrogate mother and he just introduced them; not only that, but their new-found relationship had the owl's stamp of approval, which counted for something, she thought.

Then, she felt very much like she was being judged again. Slowly looking around, she found the stern gaze of McGonagall directed at them and she gulped nervously. There wasn't anyone else there yet and so, when the professor gave a subtle smile before turning to enter the room, no one but Padma saw it. She wasn't sure, but thought that McGonagall was giving them her approval, which was strange to say the least and she wondered if the teacher was protective of Harry in some way. Remembering Harry's earlier unease around Flitwick, she wondered if that's what it was like for him.

'Should we go in?' he asked.

'Oh, yes,' Padma replied, pulled out of her thoughts. They walked in together amongst the arriving students and this time she let him lead them to the seats he wanted, which turned out to be slightly off-centre and a row behind the front, similar to the one they had in charms.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him slump slightly and a glance at the door revealed why as Hermione and Ron, once again, entered last and took a seat as far away as they could. She would hate to be in his position, having to choose between her best friend and boyfriend. Then, she realised it was worse for him: it was a choice between either both his best friends or ever having a girlfriend.

Honestly, she wasn't surprised by Ron's bad reaction. Her sister hadn't received an apology, except from Harry apparently on behalf of Ron. Both sisters had been there to hear his discussions of "The Great Betrayal" by Hermione at the ball and his jealousy was well known. Despite her knowledge that it was Ron's abrasive personality and that, if it wasn't her, then it would have been the next girl Luna chose who burnt the bridge between the two boys, she still felt guilty.

There were more important things to do though, so she reached out and squeezed his hand, a show of silent support he graciously returned. The door closed with a swish of McGonagall's wand and the lesson began. Her lecture focused on extending the vanishing spell they had learnt two lessons ago and practised on snails the previous lesson. With another swish of her wand, after reminding them of the incantation and wand movement, boxes of mice were floated onto the now-cleared tables.

She hesitantly peered inside, recoiling when she confirmed the presence of mice. The chuckle beside her had her turn and glare. He continued, but held his hands up in surrender. 'Sorry, sorry,' he said, 'but it's a little funny since we work with mice every year at one point or another.'

Slightly, but not entirely, appeased, she replied, 'Well, I can handle once a year, but that doesn't mean I like how they _wriggle_ or _bite_ or _claw_ or do any other horrible ratty thing,' while shivering with disgust.

Seeing the thoughtful look with a smidgen of a frown, she wondered what he was thinking. Then, he picked up his wand and turned to the box and said, '_Stupefy!_' while giving his wand a minor swing before levitating out a stone-still mouse onto the table. 'How's this then?'

Smiling from a mixture of relief and appreciation of his thoughtfulness, she answered, 'It's great, thanks.'

Returning her smile, he continued to stun the mice and put them all on the table, in two rows of twelve. 'Did you want me to go first again?' he asked, moving the box and books to under the table and standing up, once more giving her a hand up.

'Yes please,' she replied and carefully studied him as he prepared.

After a calming breath, he swirled his wand above the first mouse and incanted, '_Evanesco!_'

She was wondering if he would accomplish this as easily as he did the earlier spell. Watching the mouse disappear was pleasing when she saw the sparkle in his eye that one gets when they achieve something. Then, he frowned, only to start laughing a moment later. Thoroughly confused, she asked, 'What's so funny?'

It took another moment for him to calm down sufficiently and he pointed to where the mouse was. Looking closely, she could pick out some whiskers left behind. 'Every year, it's always the whiskers,' he began. 'My first mouse to snuffbox had whiskers; my first rabbit to slippers had no whiskers; my first mouse to louse had whiskers; my first lapifors had a rabbit with no whiskers and now my first vanishing left the whiskers.'

The humour in the story was definitely affecting her and, though she tried to fight it, she burst out laughing too, with Harry joining her. However, it was not short lived as a clearing of a throat behind them brought their attention to the firm professor. 'May I enquire as to what is so humorous that it is more important than my lesson?'

Padma felt like she had been petrified, barely able to look at Harry, but he took it in his stride and simply pointed back down to the table and said, 'I forgot the whiskers.'

At first there was nothing, but then Padma was amazed by the dampening of the teacher's frown. 'I see, Mr Potter. To stick true to form, when we transfigure drink coasters to mice next year, I expect your mice to be without whiskers.'

'_Did Professor McGonagall just make a joke?_' Padma thought.

'Yes ma'am,' Harry replied with a suppressed smirk.

She lingered a moment longer before turning and moving, saying, 'As you were.'

While Padma was still recovering, Harry moved onto the next one, vanishing the mouse, but still leaving a few of the whiskers. It was before he tried the third that she asked, 'Is Professor McGonagall always that, well, nice to you?'

His expression grew serious as he thought. 'No, not really. I think it's because my little transfiguration problem reminds her of my dad – after I did the snuffbox, she told me that he had the same problem, only with fur instead of whiskers. Apparently, if you think mice don't look that nice now, seeing a hairless one isn't going to help.'

'I thought your dad was really good at transfiguration?' she asked, having known that nibble of a fact from one of the books on the heroes of the wizarding war, and was interested in getting the answer.

He ruffled his hair as he said, 'I think pretty much everyone has, well, quirks when it comes to magic, if you pay attention. For me it's always the whiskers – I just forget about them – and for my dad it was fur. Hermione usually has a bit of trouble when it comes to colours. Ron, well, his wandwork is a bit sloppy. I've been at wandpoint with Malfoy enough times to know that he's got a weak wrist, so he usually shoots low or his wandwork is wrong.'

'I have a little trouble with intent,' she offered.

Smiling, he continued. 'Don't tell McGonagall I told you, but if you pay attention to her swishes, she usually curls them a bit too much, which makes her transfigurations slightly bigger or her charms a little stronger than she wants them to be. She told me she picked it up from all the fighting she had to do when I asked and she prefers not to be reminded.'

When she didn't ask anything else, he moved onto the next mouse in his line. She watched him swirl his wand perfectly, listened to him pronounce it correctly, yet still a whisker remained. Rather than dwell on it though, he moved onto the next and vanished it completely, whiskers and all.

'Erm, did you want to try doing it or should I finish vanishing my mice first?' he asked.

She shook her head, giving him a reassuring smile. 'You carry on, I'll go after.'

He weakly returned it and continued, though obviously thinking about something else as he left behind a couple of whiskers on the next one. The next mouse disappeared along with its whiskers, as did the remaining seven afterwards.

Tentatively, she stepped up to her first mouse. Glancing across, she felt him reach over, squeeze her hand and release it, though it didn't help her feel any more at ease. '_Deep breaths,_' she thought, trying to shift all her focus on vanishing the mouse. Carefully, she twirled her wand and said, '_Evanesco!_'

Just like that, her mouse fell apart as random holes plagued it, oozing blood and showing organs along with a small puddle of a vile green-brown forming beneath its perforated stomach. She turned, thoroughly nauseous, letting out a gasp. Movement in the corner of her eye picked up Harry as his wand danced over the gruesome remains and a quietly said, '_Evanesco._'

She didn't want to look back, not to where the mouse was. There were several things that bothered her: she failed to cast the spell properly; the sight of blood and stomach contents; the lingering smell.

'Are you okay?' he tentatively asked after clearing the carcass. She sniffed, not responding. 'Padma, please, are you okay?'

She didn't want to turn around, even though others were staring at her. They weren't important, other than her couple of friends who looked on concerned and she didn't mind them seeing her on the verge of tears.

'It's okay, I've taken it away, you can turn around,' he quietly said, obviously both wrong-footed and concerned.

Slowly, keeping her head down, she did. Her fringe obscured her eyes, a small blessing. 'Th-thank you,' she muttered.

She watched him shift his weight, obviously struggling to think of what to do. 'Um, would, er, a hug help, or talking about it?'

Gently, she nodded and, before he asked which, closed the distance and held him firmly. His right hand, once he realised she was hugging him, started rubbing circles on her back while the other looped around the back of her neck and rested on her shoulder. Feeling safe with her head resting on his shoulder, she whispered, 'I mauled that poor mouse.'

His mobile hand stilled for a moment before continuing. 'You didn't mean to and it was unconscious anyway, so it wouldn't have felt any pain.'

'But…'

She wanted to argue, tell him he was wrong, but she couldn't think of a reason why. He was right; she didn't mean to or even want to hurt it. If it had lived through the actual vanishing, then it would still be stunned, so it wouldn't have died an agonising death. True, she did the equivalent of stabbing it a dozen times, but it was an accident and this time there were no unsavoury consequences: the mouse still died a painless death due to its unconscious state.

'It's the intention that counts,' he soothingly said.

That helped and she slowly pried herself away, wiping away the remnants of tears. 'Thank you,' she said lightly, becoming embarrassed by her breakdown. 'Sorry about that, I don't know why I was acting so silly,' she said with a forced laugh.

'Well,' he said, with his hands on her shoulders, 'I think it shows how sweet and caring you are that it bothered you so much, even though you hate mice.'

Looking up, there was something in his lopsided smile and emerald eyes that told her he wasn't lying to make her feel better. Her cheeks reddened and, when she realised how long they were staring into each other's eyes for, she broke away, further embarrassed. For things to get worse, she found that McGonagall and the rest of the class were watching and probably had been for a while. All in all, she desperately wanted to hide away, maybe coming out after a few days recovering from the mortification she was currently feeling.

She was brought away when her hand was squeezed. 'Come on, you've got eleven more mice to go and I know you can do it.'

Nodding, she let him shuffle them both over to the back of the desk, putting most of the class out of sight, as though he could read her mind. Her wand started the familiar twirling motion, tracing a circle twice above the mouse, but when it was time to say the spell, she couldn't, her wand freezing in place.

'Don't worry – it will only happen again if you make the same mistake.'

Her mind found it ludicrous that she was being told that, considering it was practically a Ravenclaw mantra to learn from the mistakes of others as well as one's own. Once again, though, he was right.

'_Deep breaths,_' she repeated from earlier, bringing her focus onto the task at hand. Momentary hesitation and then her wand was moving again. She followed it through a quarter, half, three-quarter then full cycle to start again. Quarter, half – '_Now_!' her mind said as her mouth incanted, '_Evanesco!_'

That was it, done, and she didn't realise she had closed her eyes. Harry was still beside her and hadn't moved, so she assumed she hadn't cut a few holes out of this mouse. Then, she heard a slight chuckle.

Opening her eyes, she released a small huff. 'Oops.' There was no longer a mouse there, but there was a small hole in the table.

'Third time's a charm,' he cheerily said and she hoped he was right. 'And I would prefer it if you didn't take out more of the table.'

She rolled her eyes and positioned herself above the third mouse. Her wand flowed easily this time and when she said, '_Evanesco!_' the mouse, and no part of the table, disappeared.

Ready to celebrate, she turned to see a rather big grin on his face. 'Looks like I'm rubbing off on you already,' he said, leaving her confused until he pointed back to the table. Actually inspecting where the mouse was, she noticed a few whiskers and the odd few tiny blobs of fur.

Slightly annoyed, she turned and teased him, saying, 'If you're lucky I'll rub you off.' Then, a second too late, she realised the slip of the tongue that may be misconstrued and was quite sure the entire supply of blood in her body rushed to her face. 'Er, I mean, rub off on you.'

She couldn't look at him at first, but after several seconds of silence, she dared a glance and realised he was blushing too. After twisting slightly more, their eyes met. Another second and then they both burst out laughing.

'If you two could get back to work.'

They jumped, the laughter dying in an instant as McGonagall reminded them that she was both a strict teacher and excellent at sneaking up on those unaware, no doubt a trait inherited from her animagus transformation or perhaps the other way around.

'Yes Professor,' they said in unison and then looked at each other, smiling sheepishly.

McGonagall nodded and stepped over to the next table. Padma, regaining what little dignity she had, stood tall over the fourth mouse. '_Evanesco!_' Where once a mouse was there now was nothing and she couldn't quell the quiet squeal of joy.

'Did you just squeak?' he asked amiably with a hint of amusement.

'No, of course not,' she hastily replied, thankful that he couldn't see her rosy cheeks as another rush of embarrassment began. Before he could say anything else, she moved onto the next mouse and continued onwards. Vanishing the last, she turned to him and said, 'There we go.'

That he was still grinning made her concerned. 'You actually squeaked.'

Unable to deny it, she eloquently said, 'Shut up,' and gave him a little push.

Chuckling, he added, 'I haven't heard anyone squeak like a mouse before.'

'I did not squeak like a _mouse_!' she spat while looking quite flushed.

'Well, I don't know why you're so upset as it was quite cute,' he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Her annoyance dying, she curiously asked, 'It was?'

Nodding, he said, 'Yup.' Seeing her smiling again, he went back to the lesson at hand and started putting their books back onto the table. 'It's a page on the possible uses of vanishing, isn't it?'

'Yes,' she replied, taking her seat and picking up a quill. For the last half an hour of the lesson, they worked on the small essay, exchanging snippets of discussion. Then, with the bell, it was lunch. She wasn't sure when, but Harry had taken her hand again (and her bag) as they walked down the hall and stairs in a comfortable silence.

When they were a bit from the doors, he pulled her aside and to a stop. She waited, wondering what he was doing.

'Erm, well, you sat with me and my friends this morning,' he nervously said, 'so I was thinking, um, should we sit together with your friends now?'

Giving his hand a squeeze, she replied, 'That's sweet of you to ask, but I don't mind. After all, it's just one day a week – I'm sure they can cope without me.'

Relieved, he asked, 'Are you sure?'

She nodded and, before he asked again, she started leading him inside and over to the Gryffindor bench. It seemed that the Hogwarts rumour mill had run its course when none of the early arrivals gave her strange looks like in the morning. Taking a moment to straighten her robes a bit, she looked back up at the table and found a plate along with cutlery and a goblet waiting for her.

It was one of those little things he kept doing.

Then lunch continued, the only sticking point when Ron and Hermione entered, taking a seat further down the table, joined by Ginny for some reason. Harry had looked hurt, but when he caught Padma's eyes, he forced a smile and they quietly continued eating. Neville joined them, stuttering a warming congratulations on their new-found relationship. Then they were finished and they took a stroll down to the lake.

She wasn't sure if either of them had lead the other or if they had unconsciously wandered over to it, but the clear sky and lingering warmth made it a nice walk. Their conversation was light, centred around getting to know each other. They shared birthdays, hobbies, favourite classes and teachers and other small things that weren't too personal.

Then lunch was over and afternoon lessons began. She had a free, so walked him to Care of Magical Creatures and kissed him goodbye on the cheek. Slowly walking away, her smile persisted as she kept stealing a last glance at her boyfriend, wondering how her day had gotten so bright.


	4. Picnicking

Her feet carried her up to the Ravenclaw common room and, answering a riddle, she took a seat by a window facing the grounds, the rather large Hagrid and massive cage easily spotted.

'I knew he was dreamy, but I didn't think he'd have you staring longingly at him from a distance after a few hours.'

Abruptly, Padma turned around, blushing. 'Hello Lisa.'

She grinned, taking the seat opposite. 'So, want to tell me about what went on in transfiguration?'

Embarrassed, Padma began inspecting her hands. 'I, er, kinda maimed my mouse.'

'Oh,' Lisa softly said. There was a pause, then she asked, 'Well?'

'Well, you saw what happened. I freaked out, he hugged me, then we carried on.'

Frowning, she asked, 'But you barely slept the night you accidentally cut that rabbit in half.'

Sighing, Padma raised her head. 'I told him and he made some very good points.'

'Oh? Lisa curiously asked. 'I'd say he's doing very well. Of course, it helps that he's gorgeous.' Padma half-heartedly slapped Lisa's arm. Chuckling, Lisa added, 'Oh and his bum! If you could get me a picture of him in his boxers, I'd do all your homework for a term. If it's briefs, I'll make it the year.'

'Do you mind?' Padma asked, amused. 'I mean, I know he's hot, but that doesn't mean I expect my best friend to drool all over him.'

'Oh come on! You didn't used to mind and I distinctly remember a certain dream you told me about after he out-flew that dragon last year.' With Padma suitably blushing, Lisa laughed. 'If you asked, he'd totally take you for a fly, just the two of you snogging while the sun sets and moon sparkles.'

She rolled her eyes, though still crimson. 'Don't you have anything better to do than tease me?'

Lisa tilted her head, scratching her chin and then popped straight up. 'Nope! Anyway, why didn't you tell me he was interested? I mean, you don't need to tell me about all the guys checking you out, but when Harry Potter does, you really should.'

'Well, I think he only knew he was going to ask me out this morning.' Lisa raised an eyebrow. 'Erm, Luna kind of set us up.'

Thinking for a moment, Lisa asked, 'Loony Lovegood?'

Padma frowned. '_Luna_ Lovegood and yes. If I understood everything correctly, she talked to Harry last night and convinced him he needed to start dating. This morning, she convinced me I should date Harry and then at breakfast she introduces me as his Tuesday girl.'

'You needed to be convinced to date him?' Lisa asked, incredulous. However, then something occurred to her. 'Tuesday girl? Implying he will be dating seven girls?' Padma nervously nodded. 'Wow, I don't know how Loony, I mean _Luna_, did it, but she must be part-Slytherin to convince you it was a good idea.'

Scowling, Padma said, 'She presented everything in a very logical and concise way as well as countering any points I made. I'm offended you think a Slytherin could manipulate me like that.'

'Well, how'd she do it?' Lisa asked, intrigued.

Biting her lip as she remembered and condensed everything, Padma then answered, 'Well, it wasn't said, but it is our OWL year, so I don't exactly want to spend hours every day inspecting broom closets. This way, I only give up a few hours a week and still he seems the type that doesn't mind a bit of studying.

'Anyway, she commented on how we, erm, find each other attractive and how our personalities would be well suited, which has been accurate so far. She also told me about how, well, kind and caring he is and that, even if I was just one of seven girlfriends, he'd treat me better than most boys. After she backed that up, I was teetering on the edge and she pushed me over when she reminded me that I could end it if it wasn't working.'

There was a few seconds of tense silence, then Lisa cheekily said, 'I don't suppose you would ask Luna if I could be Saturday?'

She laughed from relief at what she knew was not a joke . 'No, I won't. I'm pretty sure she has others in mind, but maybe you're in there.'

Pouting, Lisa said, 'At least there's six other girls I can ask for a picture.'

'Oh behave and I'll introduce you and Su to him after dinner,' Padma offered, amused and losing the last doubts she had about her friends accepting her controversial relationship. With that appropriately discussed, they moved onto other topics, taking them through their free and to History of Magic.

The classroom was, as always, open when they arrived. A few members of the last class were making their way out, so the two girls went on in, taking their usual position at the front – the seats were the closest ones to the door.

After a minute or so, a third person joined their area. 'Hi Pad, Lisa. By the way, lucky you Padma.'

'Why am I lucky?' she asked Su.

Blushing slightly, Su answered, 'He asked if I would be his partner so he could get to know one of his girlfriend's best friends better. When Hagrid finished the lecture and we had to look after some weird dog things, he kept asking me for stories about you and everything. Honestly Padma, I'm so jealous – I could only dream for such an attentive guy. Merlin, when I asked him what happened in transfiguration, he told me it wasn't his place to say!'

Lisa whistled. 'She's right, Padma. You better not even think about breaking up with him – you've hit the jackpot.'

A little bemused, Su mentioned, 'He did act a bit strange when I asked him how long he'd been interested in you for, though he did confess he'd noticed how beautiful you and your sister were at the start of last year. Well, he only agreed about Parvati when I told him you wouldn't mind, considering you are identical twins.'

Feeling self-conscious, Padma looked away. 'Well, er, I think he acted odd because, um...'

Lisa, grinning treacherously, answered with, 'Luna set them up this morning without telling him and he's going to be dating six other girls, one every day of the week.'

Padma scowled at her one friend before turning to other and reluctantly agreeing. 'Yes, that.'

There was a few seconds where Su thought, but then she turned to Padma and said, 'I'm happy for you. He seems really nice and, if it helps, I think he genuinely likes you.'

'Thank you,' Padma said and then turned to Lisa. 'At least one of my best friends doesn't base my relationship around how hot he is.'

'He is pretty damn hot though,' Lisa thoughtfully added.

Padma huffed and turned to her books, pulling out the history books she read instead of listening to Binns. She had the first out when she heard the sniggering.

Su whispered, 'Looks like the Slytherins are jealous you're off the market.'

She chuckled into her bag, stopping before she removed the second book along with parchment and a quill. The juvenile tactics to try and annoy her weren't going to work if she had anything to do about it. Rather than wait for the ghost to slide in and start rambling, she started working right then, opening the tomb about medieval witchcraft and wizardry. She had forgotten just how much focus it took to drown out stupid people, but after a few minutes she managed it, falling into stride as she become absorbed with the past, only leaving to take notes.

It was a pleasant surprise when the bell pulled her out of it forty or so minutes later. With Su and Lisa on either side, she reluctantly left the relative safety of the room. If she remembered correctly, Harry had Herbology, so he should be on his way up to meet her. Smiling at that thought, she exited the room and turned towards the main staircase.

'Raghead and scarhead sitting in a tree.'

'_Stay calm, it's no worse than whore,_' Padma thought, suppressing her instinctive reaction. She knew it was Malfoy: he was always vocal and she had been expecting something for dating the man he had an unhealthy obsession with.

'F-U-C-K-I-N-G,' he chorused down the hall and she thought he was probably adding some gestures to it.

'_Wonder why it took him so long to track me down,_' she thought, then, with a chuckle, added, '_Because Harry was with me until now._'

'First comes a blowjob, then you try anal,' he continued.

She chuckled a bit more as she thought, '_Wonder who helped him come up with that?_'

'Last comes-'

Curious as to why he suddenly stopped, she turned around and couldn't help the grin. 'Hi Harry, I didn't think you would get here so fast.'

Harry grinned back from over Malfoy's shoulder, his wand firmly in the annoying boy's face. 'Su told me you shared History with the Snakes, so I thought a little jog wouldn't hurt.'

'Thanks, but you know he's just jealous,' she replied.

'Definitely, he could only hope for someone as great as you,' he casually replied, his wand drawing a small figure of eight around Malfoy's eyes.

'I was talking about you being unavailable,' she added, enjoying Harry's sudden green tinge.

'Oh, looks like I'm a little late, apologies,' said a striding Luna. 'I realised halfway through my Arithmancy lesson that I forgot to tell Harry that, as Heir to an Ancient and Noble House, he can take any insults to himself or anyone he associates with the House of Potter as a friend, ally or significant other from Draco, as Heir Apparent to a Minor House, as a slight against the House of Potter and formally challenge him to an honour duel to death or surrender.'

Blinking out of surprise, Harry asked, 'Really?' He looked back at Malfoy and noticed that his nemesis had suddenly paled further. 'Luna, I don't suppose you would know how my good friend Draco and I did in the DADA practical exam last year?'

'Oh certainly. You were first by a clear margin – Mr Barty Crouch Jr especially liked your quick reflexes and powerful stunner. I'm afraid Draco was thirteenth and had trouble with most wandwork as well as a weak shield.'

'That's quite interesting, don't you think Draco?' Harry said, trying his best to channel Snape while slowly moving his wand back. 'Well, as much fun as spending time with you is, I think I'd rather spend time with my girlfriend and friends.' He sidestepped Malfoy and started walking down, while asking, 'Luna, did you want to join us?'

With a serene smile, she replied, 'That would be lovely. Oh and did you know that the punishment for cursing the Heir to an Ancient and Noble House in the back by an Heir Apparent is life imprisonment, a fine of half the House's gold and a life-debt owed by the Head of the House to the Heir of the Ancient and Noble House?'

Padma laughed freely, imagining how much Malfoy must be fuming, no doubt with his wand clenched and a glare on his face. She took Harry's hand, resting slightly on him while they walked.

'That's very interesting, Luna. I'm wondering why I haven't been told that before.'

'Oh that's easy,' she dreamily replied. 'Albus knows that you would have killed Draco years ago and Ronald doesn't like being reminded you are effectively nobility. Hermione, bless her, wouldn't know a thing about wizarding custom since it is usually taught to those raised in magical households while she was going to primary school. Everyone else assumes you know, which I'm sorry to say included myself.'

Padma felt Harry stiffen slightly, no doubt unprepared for actually having his question answered, but it ended quickly when she squeezed his hand. 'I confess, even after spending half a day with you it hadn't occurred to me that you would be unfamiliar with what you should have been brought up to know inside out. When you inherit your Headship at seventeen, there will be a lot of customs for you to follow which others will take for granted.'

'It doesn't matter, I'm used to thinking on my feet, I'll manage,' he distractedly said.

'Neville is in the same position as you as the Heir to an Ancient and Noble House. Augusta, his grandmother, is well versed in the intricacies of the aristocratic and political nuances,' Luna stated.

Harry thought about it while descending a set of stairs. 'I guess I could ask him about it; maybe I can visit them both over Christmas or Easter or even the summer holidays. I mean, I should probably wait until my OWLs are over, but...'

Padma felt a prod in her side and turned to see Luna motioning to Harry. '_She wants me to... comfort him?_' she thought. Sparing a second to order her thoughts, she said, 'It's not your fault you're ignorant. Besides, if you work half as hard as you did this morning, you will be the epitome of gentry before you know it.'

He chuckled lightly. 'Thanks Padma, but I'm not so sure. Waving wands is easy, remembering something like having to bow while keeping eye contact before saying "May our alliance be strong" and making sure not to smile or frown is not easy.'

His joke curled her lips and she patted his shoulder. 'It's not that bad. Really there won't be much to remember if you don't want to be involved in politics. You may be called to the Wizengamot a bit, but all you'd have to do is sit back and vote at the end. The rest of the time, you just greet people politely if they greet you politely.'

'It doesn't sound so bad when you say it like that,' he commented. They walked into the Great Hall, the tables fairly empty in the early afternoon. 'Erm, so what did you two want to do?'

'I have to search for a wandering Beletrey Blub, most likely in the astronomy tower,' Luna replied, breaking away. 'Do have a good afternoon though and remember to use suitable protection if you decide to have sex.'

Harry and Padma, both blushing enough to glow in the dark, numbly waved goodbye before taking a pair of seats at the closest end of Gryffindor table. Having a look around, Padma was relieved that at least no one else heard the peculiar girl's advice.

'Well, err,' he nervously said.

Taking a breath, she was determined to clear the situation and said, 'We won't be having sex today so let us pretend she didn't say that.'

He relaxed at her words and when a cheeky grin appeared, she was glad it worked. 'Today?' She choked and blushed a little more profusely. When she was about to protest, he leaned over and kissed her. Her eyes fluttered closed of their own accord, staying that way monetarily when he pulled back. 'You look so cute when you blush,' he affectionately said, stroking her cheek.

Humbled, she was sure she would be even redder if it was possible, but she doubted it. Her hand sunk down over his, gripping it with her fingers while her thumb drew circles on the back of his hand.

They sat like that for minutes, content with each others tender touch until someone collapsed in the seat opposite, huffed loudly and then coughed even louder when they still hadn't broken apart. Disgruntled, Harry turned to see who was disturbing them and was quite surprised. 'Ginny?'

'Oh, hey you two, I didn't see you there,' she said, acting aloof.

'Did you want something or...'

She shook her head, her cascading ginger hair exaggerated in its swinging. 'Oh it was nothing, I was looking for my _boyfriend_ Michael Corner.'

'Sorry Gin, haven't seen him. Maybe he's in the library or still has a lesson?'

'Well, we agreed to meet here. You don't mind if I stay, do you?'

Harry was about to reply when Padma cut him off, saying, 'Of course not. We were going to go finish off our transfiguration essay, weren't we?'

Though confused, he said, 'Er, yeah. See ya Gin.'

'Bye Harry,' Ginny sweetly said, glaring at Padma, though the couple missed it as they were already on the way.

Outside the hall, Harry quietly asked, 'What was that about?'

'I think she is quite upset you are dating me,' Padma calmly replied.

'Hermione told me she was over her crush though. I mean, that's why she's dating Corner, isn't it?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Obviously she isn't over you and she is trying to make you jealous.' Squeezing his hand, she added, 'But that doesn't matter. Right now, it's just the two of us and I would like to get back to our extended date.'

The release of her hand confused her until his arm was draped across her back, holding her a little closer. 'Of course. Are we really going to go work on the essay?'

'I'll leave that up to you,' she said, looping her own arm around his waist. 'After all, it is only due in next week.'

He turned and gave her a peck on her cheek. 'Thanks. I think I'll see about getting Hermione to do it with me. Ron made his choice, but I don't want to push her away.'

'That's very thoughtful of you,' she quietly said, wondering where he was leading them as they headed downstairs to below ground level, though not in the direction of the dungeons. Her confusion furthered when they were walking towards a dead-end with only a portrait of fruit ahead.

Stopping in front of the painting, she gave her boyfriend a questioning look and he just winked back. He brought his free hand up and tickled the pear, making her question his sanity until it giggled and a doorknob appeared. Giving it a pull, he grandly said, 'Welcome to the kitchens.'

Her breath caught as she was exposed to the cooking operation hidden in an obscure room. 'Oh my,' she muttered, checking out the replica tables of those in the Great Hall and the hundred or so bustling house-elves, carrying cakes and chickens and a whole manner of food items.

'Dobby?' Harry asked, scattering the crowd that had been forming in front of them.

'Mr Harry Potter sirs! And Mr Harry Potter sirs girlyfriend Mrs Petal. What cans Dobby be doing for such a great and wonderful wizard?' a cheery elf asked, bouncing on his feet, which were covered in odd socks that were much too big for him.

Harry chuckled at the name and looked beside him. 'My girlfriend Mrs Petal, eh? I think Petal suits you.'

A bloom to her cheeks, she replied, 'Padma means lotus in Sanskrit.'

'So does that make you my Lotus Petal?' he cheekily asked.

Blushing a bit more, she answered, 'I would not mind if you called me that, so long as it is just the two of us.'

Frowning, he asked, 'But do you like it? I don't want to annoy you by calling you by a silly pet name.'

Shyly, she nodded. 'I do like it, though I have no doubt Lisa would tease me incessantly over it.'

Smiling again, he replied, 'Very well, my Lotus Petal, I'll do my best to keep it between us.' He finished by leaning in and kissing her nose. 'Now, as to why we're here,' he said, turning back to the excited elf. 'Dobby, I was wondering if you could make us food for a small picnic?'

The elf squealed out a, 'Yes!' before running into the heart of the room.

Padma looked at Harry and asked, 'Just when did you decide we were having a picnic?'

Ruffling his hair nervously, he replied, 'I thought we could have a study-date since it's a nice day, but we don't have to if you don't want to. Su mentioned you liked to practice wandwork after lessons, so I was thinking we could do that with a little snack.'

Going up on her tiptoes, she kissed his nose. 'Thank you for thinking of me.'

'You're welcome,' he said, his cheeks rosy, looking away.

Giggling at his embarrassment, she teased him saying, 'You look so cute when you blush.'

Frowning, he grumbled, 'Men aren't supposed to look cute,' which set off her laughter and softened his expression.

'Dobby be's packing sandwiches and pumpkin juice and goblets and knifes and forks and more,' the happy elf cheered.

'Thanks Dobby, that's great,' he replied, taking the basket. 'Featherweight charm too – I'm going to have to get you another pair of socks for Christmas if you keep this up.'

Padma broke down again when Dobby began sniffling and mumbling, 'Great Harry Potter sir much too kind to Dobby.'

Harry just scowled at her for a second before turning back to Dobby and saying, 'Well, we're off now, but I'll try and come back soon.' When he realised Dobby wouldn't be in any state to answer any time soon, he gently closed the door, the doorknob melting back into the painting.

'Which day will you be dating Dobby?' she quipped, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

'I think he's got his hands full with Winky still,' he distractedly replied.

She was about to ask about Winky when she had a flashback to one of the many rants made by a Hermione Granger about the plight of house-elves and suddenly lost all interest in possibly bringing up any of it.

They casually walked up and out of the castle, seeking out a quiet spot under an oak near the lake. Harry rummaged around the basket once they sat down and chuckled as he pulled out a blanket chequered with Gryffindor colours. 'I'm definitely getting him a nice pair of socks for Christmas.'

Her curiosity peaked by the second sock mention, she wondered if they were bonded as master and servant as that would explain the close relationship, though it still seemed oddly close. 'Could you explain the socks?' she asked.

He rolled his eyes. 'I'm sorry, of course it wouldn't make any sense to you. Well, erm, I guess I should say that Dobby used to be the Malfoy's elf until I tricked Lucius into freeing him. He's kinda had an obsession with me since then, no, even before then, so I always ask for him if I need an elf. The socks, well, he loves them, so a pair of socks is the ideal present for him.'

It slotted some pieces into place for her, but not everything until she thought, '_Does he think of Dobby as his friend rather than a house-elf?_'

'Anyway, did you want to have a little snack or get straight to it?' he asked.

Her thoughts escalated momentarily, leading her to ask, 'Harry, may I ask why you're doing this?'

'Doing what? The picnic?' he asked back, confused.

'Dating seven girls at once. I hope you don't mind me saying, but after spending some time with you, you don't seem like the type who would and I doubt it's simply because Luna told you that you should.'

He leaned back, looking up into the wispy sky. 'I... I guess I can answer that,' he whispered, collecting his thoughts. Calmly, he said, 'All my life I've wished I had a family and, well, if dating seven girls will help me get there quicker, I'll do it. I don't plan to drop out of school to start a family, but I don't think finding that special someone sooner rather than later would be a bad idea.'

She assimilated that knowledge then asked, 'Do you think I could be that someone?'

Smiling, his head tilted back down to face her. 'That's what I'm seeing, but so far so good.' Warmed, she smiled back. 'If you don't mind me asking, why did you agree? I mean, I know what Luna said, but I can't really imagine how I would be able to do this if you were gonna date six other guys.'

'Well,' she absently began, 'I... I think the main reason is that all I had to do was give you a chance. As Luna said, if it didn't work, I could end. If we didn't get on, or if I couldn't stand you dating other girls, or any of hundreds of reasons, then I could end it. So, there wasn't really a reason I shouldn't and several why I should.

'If I'm honest, I don't think it will be easy tomorrow, but it's something I have to accept if I want a chance with you. No, it's not ideal, but nothing that's ever worth it is, is it?'

Harry couldn't help but think about Sirius, about how the closest thing he currently had to family was an escaped convict, and so couldn't help but agree, nodding softly.

* * *

The warning bell for curfew struck as Harry climbed into the Gryffindor common room. Being a weekday with lessons the following morning, it was fairly crowded.

'Ronald, I'm not going with you up to your room!'

Harry, along with most of the room, looked over to the thoroughly crimson boy in question and a thoroughly scandalised Hermione. After scowling and finding no support in the judgemental stares of his Housemates, Ron slinked up the stairs by himself, leaving several people nauseous as they contemplated what he was going to be doing up there without the female company he had requested.

Huffing a few times and sending her own dirty looks up the stairs, she pandered over to Harry, switching to a soft smile. 'Hi Harry, how was your day?'

Grinning, he replied, 'Great.' Turning expressionless, he asked, 'Are you sure you should be talking to me? I think, just maybe, Ron's not too happy with me right now and this won't help you at all.'

Her own expression turned wistful. 'No, you're the great betrayer of us, going behind our backs to change everything without even thinking about us.'

'It's that bad?' he asked, cringing slightly.

She nodded. 'Honestly though, Harry, I've been doing a lot of thinking today-' Harry snorted, 'Fine, a lot more thinking than usual.' Her shoulders sank as she quietly admitted, 'I'm not sure how I missed it, but for the last four years, Ron and I, we haven't been friends. I was your friend and he was your friend and I thought that meant we were friends, but there's literally no common ground between us.'

His eyebrows dropped, brain working furiously, but after several false-starts, he too admitted, 'I can't think of anything.'

'The only adventures the two of us have even been on together was finding Fluffy and then the stone in first year,' she added. 'Dragon eggs, basilisks, acromantulas, a bit of the S-snuffles stuff, but most of that was just you and I...'

Sighing, he asked, 'Well, maybe you two can find something?'

She snorted and replied, 'There's not much wiggle room. Either Quidditch, chess or food, all three things I can tolerate in small doses, but not as my entire life.'

'But...' he weakly said, trying and failing to come up with anything he and Ron had discussed that wasn't in one of those three categories. 'Erm, you could talk about how much of a bad friend I am? Or how much you both hate Snape and Umbitch?'

Rolling her eyes, she chided him saying, 'That's _Professor_ Snape and _Professor_ Umbridge.'

Their smiles slowly melted though as their conversation from moments prior sunk in. 'What're you gonna do? I mean, I don't mind you hanging with me tomorrow.'

'Yes, because Padma or whoever Luna gets for you tomorrow is going to be overjoyed at sharing you with me for the day,' she gently mocked.

He plummeted for a second before regaining a cheeky grin. 'I didn't know you were interested in sharing me.'

Blushing, she mumbled, 'That's not what I meant.' Coughing and regaining her poise, she said, 'I was thinking about seeing if Luna wanted to study with me. We had the most illuminating debate about the possible uses of human-to-animal transfigurations in relation to healing. Really, it hadn't occurred to me until she said it, but injuries are preserved, so shouldn't treatments be too? Why, we could change you into a ferret and then we'd only have to use a tiny amount of Skele-grow compared to if you were a human!' Chuckling at her growing enthusiasm, Harry gestured "calm down" until she blushed slightly again and mumbled, 'Sorry.'

'Don't worry about it, I think it's great you finally have someone to talk about all that stuff with.' Her eyes lingered on his hand and, most importantly, the faint outline of a sentence. Catching her doing so, he idly rubbed it. 'It's felt fine today, probably managed to distract myself enough to forget about it.'

Her reply smile was weak, but conveyed her sympathy. 'Good, now we just need a cure for Snape's point deduction and lessons won't cause you any lasting damage.'

'That's _Professor_ Snape,' Harry drawled, getting a chuckle and a half-hearted shove.

'Prat.'

* * *

Small note: 100 reviews for 3 chapters, much thanks! A lot of good points and ideas filtering through, but I'm afraid to say anyone hoping to see Ginny or any non-Hogwarts students as part of his seven will be disappointed. On the same note, reiterating the summary/general description on first page, Ron and Ginny fans beware. Next six chapters won't be as in-depth, so chapter ten will have the week set, though no guarantees it will stay. For anyone looking for a complete list of players, I'll leave a short note when I reach the final seven saying as much, but until then it's liable to change at a moment's notice.


	5. Wednesday

Luna stared into the distance. The Astronomy tower was the tallest and so the best if you wished to view the beautiful pastel colours that emerged along with the morning sun. She had the scene virtually memorised though; she was here for the extreme sense of peace and nature that can only be wrought when so far above and beyond the ground.

Her limbs felt stiff, but she brushed aside the discomfort and forced her muscles into action to take her into the bowels of the castle. There were many stairs – as few as a hundred and thirty-nine if you took the slide or as many as seven hundred and sixty-four if you ventured into the lesser known staircases – on the way which only aided in aggravating her condition, but it wasn't that unpleasant of an occurrence.

Later than she would have liked, but still no doubt early, she arrived at her destination opposite a portrait of three muggles with foils, "The Three Miscatteers" or something along those lines if she remembered correctly, which she was liable not to as it was awfully more humorous and memorable to think of three cats who were skilled physical duellers.

When the odd person began to emerge, she was getting just as odd looks. Sometimes she wondered about how her life would have changed had she been sorted differently, but not for too long as she knew that it was likely her magic would attempt to change the past, which would never end well if she correctly interpreted several books and theories on the subject.

Luckily her self-distraction from introspection was aided by the appearance of the person she was looking for, but so as to be sure, she distractedly asked, 'Susan Bones?'

The girl in question replied with a questioning look until, after several seconds of nothing being spoken, hesitantly said, 'Er, yes,' before appending, 'Do I know you?'

'I don't think so, but you would be in a better position to say than I, that is Luna Lovegood,' she replied while looking at Hannah and casually moving a loose bit of her fringe behind her ear. 'I understand it's terribly inappropriate to ask so bluntly, but may I enquire if you are a lesbian, or rather if you are not only so?' she asked, switching back to look at Susan.

'What?' Susan blurted out, though without any malice as it had to be the most politely phrased and voiced way to ascertain her sexuality she could imagine that didn't involve euphemisms and she certainly wasn't expecting it to come up leaving her quite wrong-footed.

Luna tilted her head, taking in both of the scarlet-coloured girls. 'I suppose I should say that I am asking if you would be interested in dating Harry Potter along with six other girls.'

'Wait, what? Six other girls? But... Padma?' Susan weakly replied, confusion evident on her reddened face.

'Oh goody,' Luna cheered, clapping her hands as her target didn't decline dating, slotting her firmly into the not-lesbian category, or at least the not-lesbian-when-it-comes-to-Harry-Potter category. 'Yes, six other girls including Padma, that is one for every day of the week and you will have Wednesdays.'

Susan shook her head lightly as she repeated, 'But, what?'

Frowning, Luna cleared her throat and sang through a few notes, but neither felt nor heard anything the matter with her voice. 'Harry Potter will be dating seven girls; would you be his girlfriend on Wednesdays?' she paraphrased, careful in her delivery to keep out any unwanted confusion.

Still no reply was forthcoming from the gaping girl.

'Did I misinterpret your interest?' Luna asked, concerned. 'It's just, that, well, there were so many signs you were interested that I was quite confident in my assumptions and deductions.'

'S-signs?' Susan hesitantly asked, her mind still quite far off-balance.

Luna nodded. 'Let's see, as examples, there is the Harry Potter doll you have; the boycott of the Prophet on his behalf; the longing looks at the Yule Ball; then there are the less obvious and more hesitant ones, such as the banners you made supporting Harry during the tournament yet were too afraid to show; the subtle change in your body language when he enters the room or looks at you; the slightly too strong emotions as someone repeats earlier stories of his adventures, most notably the fear and sadness.'

Seconds slipped by as Susan just gaped, then sputtered, 'But, what, how?'

Her head tilted as Luna contemplated answering, since it would be awfully unfair to hold a Hufflepuff to the same standards as a Ravenclaw when it came to intelligence and logical reasoning. Eventually, that is after a second of thought, she conceded to the request.

'Near every girl, certainly in a so-called "Light" household, had a Harry Potter doll, which you admitted to still possessing after your Charms exam last year and I didn't think it likely that would have changed; the articles that reflected negatively upon Cedric, which you claim as your reason for the boycott, are nearing a year old, so it is much too late for that to be the reason while their current favourite topic is the slandering of Harry; while the ball was only for upper years, the security was mighty lax and I observed you and numerous others sparing infatuated stares for Harry.

'For the second and third task you turned up with paint upon your clothes, which is most unusual for a witch and the timing suggested you had produced some form of support, but it would have to have a stigma attached for you not to display it, which led to it being not for Cedric and so Harry was the most reasonable alternate; the body language is obvious as you straighten up, pushing your breasts up and out slightly while your smile widens, no doubt unconsciously making yourself a more appealing mate but it is a consistent reaction, though I admit it may be due to Ron since the two often accompany each other, or possibly Hermione; the story reactions are again obvious when compared to the others listening and, as I emphasised, it is that you appreciate the pain each tale tells, no doubt from indirect exposure to the hardships of peril from your aunt.

'Now, will you be accompanying me to breakfast with Harry or shall I have to fall back upon my fallback?'

There was near a minute of stunned silence, apart from Luna who was humming a jaunty tune, until Susan broke it with a quiet question. 'Those stories, they're true?'

A frown marred Luna's face momentarily before her eyes widened and she exclaimed, 'Of course!' Her appearance returned to the normal otherworldly indifference as she continued, saying, 'His tales are what attracts you to him, because you no doubt know what kind of a person would be able to be unfaltering in their continuous overcoming of perilous situations, an unconscious inference.'

Susan barely managed to follow that and, as Luna was looking at her, she guessed she was supposed to comment on it. 'Erm, yes?'

'Wonderful, then ask to see his left bicep.'

'What?' Susan groaned, another knot tied firmly into her brain.

Luna's head dropped to her other shoulder. 'It would be premature and uncouth to ask you to have faith that everything will fall in place with that, but unmannered and early I must be. Shall we attend breakfast?'

Unable to think, Susan turned to Hannah, who shrugged, before nodding.

'Oh excellent, let's hurry to Harry shall we?' Luna rhetorically asked as her feet set into a gentle skipping, her actions careful to avoid further aggravating any muscles.

* * *

'For the last time, Parvati, there's no way Padma would slap my bum and start giggling!' Harry said, exasperated.

'Miss Wednesday has arrived,' Hermione announced, a little mirthful at the sight of the always serene Luna followed by a blushing and thoroughly confused redhead as well as a third girl who wasn't much better. 'Maybe even a double date?' she mused while Harry turned around.

Smiling nervously, he greeted their guests. 'Morning Luna and you've brought Susan and Hannah, haven't you?' he hesitantly asked, hoping he remembered their names correctly.

'Indeed, may I introduce you to Miss Susan Wednesday Bones and her moral support Miss Hannah Abbot. Susan's main hobbies include exercising, specifically swimming and cross-country running, and I believe she dabbles in writing children's stories,' Luna replied, seating Susan and Hannah to his left while she took the space to his right.

He reacted by moving plates and cutlery around before turning to Susan and adding, 'Well, it's, err, nice to meet you.'

She nodded hastily, her cheeks still glowing. An awkward silence followed as they glanced around each other, but Parvati broke it by asking, 'What did you mean Miss Wednesday?'

'Oh good morning Parvati,' Luna said. Fiddling with a bit of hair, she answered, 'Harry will be dating seven girls, one every day of the week. If approached and asked out, it is his choice whether or not to accept, but it would be rude to do so since he will be on a date and he would most likely decline. Third years and younger are most likely to young for him, so they shouldn't get their hopes up nor should any teachers for the opposite reason. The people most likely to be one of his girlfriends are those that judge and treat Harry by his actions and not by hearsay or the like. Padma was fully aware of Harry's soon-to-be wide variety of women when she accepted and I believe we all would appreciate it if you made the school fully aware of all this by the time Harry and Susan can properly start their date at lunchtime.'

For a moment, there was no reaction, but then an intense war between asking more questions, sharing quite possibly the juiciest gossip in Hogwarts ever and trying to snag a date with Harry began in Parvati's mind.

'Oh and you should probably alert them that Harry is the Heir to an Ancient and Noble House, so there's dire consequences for insulting any of his dates and the like.' There was a few seconds, then Luna added, 'Well, get to it!'

That spurred Parvati into action and she jumped out of her seat, running out of the hall. After that, before silence could descend once more, Luna coughed and gave a shallow nod to Susan.

'Oh,' she muttered before gulping nervously and asking, 'Um, Harry, could- could I see your arm?'

Though his expression was muddled, he complied and began to roll up his right sleeve.

'Er, your left one, please,' she interrupted.

Further befuddled, he fumbled with the robe to push it up to his elbow, but as she was still intently looking at his bicep, he continued until a pale circle of flesh was revealed. Instantly, his hand swiped his sleeve down, but it was too late as he heard the gasp. Before he could even muster the shame that went along with his injuries, he was grappled by the sobbing girl.

A brand new fear enveloped him as he had no idea what to do whilst most uncomfortable due to his personal space being so thoroughly invaded. Looking up at Hermione, she motioned patting and rubbing, so he brought up a hand to slowly rub circles on her back.

It seemed to work as her crying slowly stilled. Hesitantly, she rose, rubbing her eyes and mumbling, 'Sorry.' Still nervous, but rousing her courage, she asked, 'W-what did you do after being bitten?'

The question surprised him and, after a moment to recall, he quietly said, 'I pulled the tooth out of my arm and stabbed the diary that was, erm, responsible for everything,' though while looking away from her.

A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill, but she held them back as she whispered, near silently, 'Oh Merlin.'

Only then did he look back at her and found, not pity or hero worship, but that same look that Hermione had when he had told her about it. '_What did she say it was? Upset I had to do it; proud I did it?_' he thought.

Smiling slightly now, she cleared her throat before saying, 'Sorry, not the best start, is it?'

It was disconcerting to try and decide if Susan saw him as "The-Boy-Who-Lived" or as "Just Harry", so he instead decided to put his faith in Luna. Returning her smile, he said, 'It's fine, really.' Behind them, Luna coughed loudly and Harry guessed it was another signal. Taking a deep breath, he asked, 'Susan Bones, will you go out with me?'

She nodded gently, shyly answering, 'Yes.'

* * *

After a horrible few hours in lesson (more so since Ron continued ignoring him in Divination, though at least Hermione kept him sane in Transfiguration) Harry held Susan's hand lightly in his own. It was ticklish at first, but he soon became used to the slight patterns her fingers would draw on his palm while they walked and actually rather liked how it kept him firmly focused on their pseudo-date.

'So, Harry, why don't you tell me about yourself?' she softly asked as they walked out onto the fairly empty grounds. Though chilly, all those in second year and up knew it was the warmest it would be for a long time, so were making the most of it.

He ruffled his hair, unaware of the slight blush it got from her as she bit her lip. 'Well, er, I guess you know I like flying. There's just something so, well, it makes me feel free when I fly and-' he paused, catching her shiver slightly. 'Are you cold?'

She brushed it off, stroking his arm lightly with her free hand as she said, 'Just a little, it's fine though.'

Frowning gently, he let go to start undoing his cloak, but halted and asked, 'Cloak or warming charm?'

'Sometimes I forget I can use magic outside of class,' Susan muttered, a smile in place, but when she went for her wand he stilled her.

'Allow me,' he replied in answer to her questioning gaze as he continued unclasping his cloak before draping it over her shoulders, a little magic making it warmer than it should have been.

Gently laughing, she asked, 'Aren't you going to be cold now?'

Puffing his chest slightly, he cheekily answered, 'It wouldn't be a romantic gesture otherwise.'

'Ha-rry,' she managed between chuckles. 'Holding doors and offering cloaks, how'd you become such a gentleman without anyone noticing?'

Again his hand ran through his hair, her reaction to it still unknown to him as he focused on something distant. 'It's a bit silly and, well, erm, I guess you might not... No, maybe you will understand...'

Concerned about the absent look in his eyes, she prompted him. 'Harry?'

Shaking his head softly, he muttered, 'Sorry,' before bringing a weak smile back. 'Well, when I was little and until I was, er, not so little, I didn't know anything about my parents... So, I would spend time imagining what they were like. Just little things at first, like that I was in a comfy bed and my mum would kiss my forehead before saying goodnight and my dad would stand in the doorway, smiling. Then, I'd imagine that I'd wake up and come down and find my mum putting some food on my plate while my dad poured drinks for everyone.

'Since I came to Hogwarts, and being told by a few people how in love they were, I started imagining them doing all those little things I saw happy couples doing. My dad would hold doors open, help carry stuff; my mum would pay extra attention to make things perfect, fuss over him; those sorts of things. Yesterday, well, I sort of put myself in my dad's place, doing all those things I imagined him doing or would do. Silly, right?'

Susan thought about it for nearly a minute, before saying, 'Aunty Amelia's pretty great. The first time I actually missed my parents was when I was seven or eight and we visited some old friends of my parents. They had a daughter, Amy, who at one point fell over and scraped her knee. Her mum picked her up, cleaned her and then kissed her knee better and that was when I realised _my_ mum would never pick me up and make me feel better if I got a cut or a graze. Since then, once a week, I'll write them a letter and tell them about what I've been doing.'

She felt embarrassed for confessing that, but at the same time more connected to him than she felt with anyone. For once, she was talking about losing both her parents with someone who was in the same position, someone who was always being told how great they were while never having the chance to know them any more than as ghosts of the past.

His arm pulled her slightly closer and she let it, relishing in the increased bodily contact. In a quiet, broken voice, he solemnly said, 'The hardest part for me is that I'll never hear them tell me that they love me or that they're proud of me or even just hug me.'

'For me,' she began in her similar tone, 'it's that, on my wedding day, I won't have my dad to give me away or my mum crying on the front row.'

Coming to a stop, he pulled her around and into a hug. 'Sorry, I'm making this depressing,' he murmured.

Her head shook against his shoulder. 'No, it's nice talking about it for a change.'

Closing his eyes, he broke the world down to just the two of them, feeling unusually comfortable in her embrace. 'I'd like to name my first son after my dad and my first daughter after my mum.'

'We'll have to get married first or my aunt will kill me.' He chuckled lightly, bringing a smile to her face. 'Have you thought much about that sort of stuff?' she asked.

She felt him shrug gently. 'I don't have much of a past, so I prefer to think about the future.'

A bit of her wanted to ask what he meant, but another was telling her it wasn't time yet. 'So, other than what you want to call your first kids, what else have you thought about?'

Taking a deep breath, inhaling her strawberry scent, he replied, 'Mainly just where I'd like to live and a few things I'd like to have there,' before asking, 'what about you?'

'Well, like most girls I've just about planned my wedding minus the groom. Other than that, I'm not really sure. I mean, I'd like to work at the ministry in a good job so I can help make the world a better place and all that, but who doesn't?'

Opening his eyes, he realised that he wouldn't mind just standing there, holding her and talking. 'Luna mentioned you wrote a bit?' he questioned, that fragment of the conversation from earlier returning to him.

'Well, yes,' she nervously said. 'My aunt gets invited along to quite a few things and usually she'll go to St. Mungo's for a charity dinner or something a couple of times a year. If it's outside of term, then I'll go with her and normally end up on the table for the kids who are there for long-term treatment. Since I started coming to Hogwarts, they would ask me for stories about it, so, er, I write a couple of stories before I go to make it a little easier.'

'What sort of stories? I didn't think that much happened around here.'

He could feel her blush against his cheek. 'Um, well, the last one I, er, told them, was about a brave little boy who had to out-fly a dragon.'

After chuckling, he apologised, explaining, 'Sorry, but Fleur called me a little boy the first time we properly met and it made me think of that.'

'Well, she must've felt quite embarrassed to lose to you in all three tasks then,' she quipped. Feeling him slump a little, and guessing why, she asked, 'Should we go have lunch now?'

Slowly releasing her, he said, 'Yeah, why not,' before kissing her forehead and mumbling, 'Thanks.'

Smiling she took his hand and set them on course back to the castle.

* * *

In the hall, Hermione was sitting beside Luna at the Gryffindor table.

'Luna, I was wondering if I could, you know, help you-'

Interrupting her, Luna serenely stated, 'You're wondering why or whether I'm going to ask you to date Harry.'

'What?' Hermione exclaimed. 'No! I want to help pick out-'

'Let us imagine the hypothetical situation of you finishing your Ancient Runes class tomorrow afternoon when Harry has a free. In advance, you two have confirmed that Harry will be there to escort you at the end of your lesson. However, when you leave your lesson, he's not there so you wait and it's five or so minutes later that he turns up out of breath with Wrackspurts around him.'

Hermione scowled at the second interruption, but turned to thought at she processed the situation. 'Well, I would be upset with him. He said he would be there and he wasn't; since I would be his girlfriend for only the one day, I should be more important than whatever he was doing.'

Shaking her head, Luna said, 'That's why you can't date Harry right now. First of all, you never gave him a chance to explain himself. Secondly, he would be afraid to be able to enjoy himself in case he lost track of time. Thirdly, he's still learning and he will make mistakes, but he can't do that effectively if he's afraid of the consequences of making a mistake.

'So, while you are a perfectly lovely lady, you are a little too high maintenance for Harry to cope with right now. Perhaps when he's more used to it or if you were to be more aware of the points of views of others then it could work, but not right now.'

'But, I, I'm not high maintenance!' Hermione sputtered.

Giving her a sympathetic look, Luna simply replied, 'You are,' before turning and more loudly saying, 'hello Harry and Susan, you two look comfortable together.'

Hermione turned and saw the two of them walking over, leaning against each other. She admitted to herself that they did look comfortable, prompting her to wonder how Luna managed to pick Susan out for him given all the possibilities.

'Hey Luna, Hermione,' Harry said, smiling. 'What were you two just talking about?'

'We were discussing Hermione's personality,' Luna succinctly replied before asking, 'have you two been enjoying yourselves?'

Susan blushed, having read a little more into that than she should have, while Harry answered, 'In a way, I have. It's been nice talking about some things I don't usually talk about.'

'Same here,' she quickly agreed.

Tilting her head and smiling, Luna offered, 'Congratulations.'

Although confused by the odd reply, they both accepted it as a compliment of sorts before the conversation turned towards lunch and the afternoon lessons.

* * *

Harry and Susan walked slowly up to the greenhouses alone, Hermione having not-so-subtly left them after lunch and before afternoon lessons began with Luna tagging along.

He had thought it odd at first that they weren't talking, having tried to relate it to his day with Padma. While Padma hadn't been pushy or at all annoying, she had somehow kept a constant conversation going. Thinking back over it, he classed it as a methodical and logical exchange of information, which he conceded was what he should've expected from a proper Ravenclaw.

Susan, though, seemed content to just feel him beside her. Having been starved of affection, he had never understood why Hermione had hugged him as often as she did; how she could possibly get anything out of the physical contact he simply didn't know.

Now, though, he had a bit of an idea. It was a new feeling, a flame that felt like it was burning inside, warming him from the pit of his stomach outwards. Pleasant, it had him relaxed and gently happy – not so much that he could spend hours without becoming bored, but a definite step up from doing nothing.

The more he focused on it the more he related it to other small actions that had the same result. First was the most obvious in that it was similar but weaker as the feeling he got when they were holding each other earlier. Then, he realised it was a tamer version of the passion he felt when kissing Padma.

Thinking back further, he remember a spark of similar emotion when Sirius had talked about living together as a family, or when Hermione had hugged him at the end of last year, or when Luna had talked to him only the night before last...

'_Is that it?_' he thought, '_I'm feeling... loved?_'

It was a stunning revelation and only inertia kept him travelling forwards as his mind stopped, unable to proceed further. Memories of his bitter childhood were replaying, fragments that repeatedly and harshly proclaimed him someone who could never be loved...

They slowly faded away as he blinked hastily to prevent any tears from being spilled, but to be replaced by Luna's words echoing in his head, '_So you can discover a new form of love._'

Stopping abruptly, he watched Susan as she continued forwards, only to be swung around slightly by their connection. Turning further, she looked at him, concern in her beautiful azure eyes.

Before she could speak, he asked, 'May I kiss you?'

Her concern morphed to surprise and confusion as she nodded and blushed, but he didn't dwell on it, leaning in to give her a long yet chaste kiss, feeling that gentle flame grow inside as her returning affection made him feel _loved_.

Slowly he pulled back, feeling more than hearing her slight moan in disappointment. 'Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?' she quietly asked.

Smiling, he said, 'A thank you for giving me a chance,' adding in his mind, '_to be loved._'

'You're welcome,' she managed to squeak out as he pulled her into an embrace. Unlike before, it wasn't for mutual comfort, but a show of mutual affection as she snuggled against him and she couldn't help but smile, unaware he was doing the same.

The distant ringing brought them reluctantly apart, silently returning on their joint walk up to the greenhouse.

* * *

While he always had a hint of green thumbs from his "upbringing", Herbology had had a bit too much remembering of obscure information for him to excel. It wasn't a problem in the first years, where it was just about the same as muggle gardening but in third year things like "you have to stroke its leaves otherwise it spits stink sap at you" started becoming more the rule than the exception and even more so in fourth year. If his experience of fifth year so far was what the rest of the year would be like, then the trend continued.

With Susan, it wasn't what he would call a resounding success, but she certainly lightened up the lesson.

They had been tasked to work with Fanged Geraniums, a plant that Sprout had hinted often came up in their O.W.L. exams. The lesson had focused on one aspect of caring for them, de-teething, and it involved a lot of manhandling of the plants.

After being taught how to, Susan and he took to a station, armed with a utensil similar to pliers and a couple of pairs of dragon hide gloves. It had gone downhill (academically) from there as Susan spilt compost on him, fumbled their plant (getting him bitten on his forearm) and more.

Harry, being who he was, took it all as a running joke – much to Susan's relief as, by the time they finished the lesson, they were mostly covered in dirt. Practically tumbling out of the greenhouse, it was all they could do to make it to Hagrid's hut before collapsing in laughter.

* * *

After a, relatively, boring lesson with Hagrid, Harry and Susan began their afternoon date. While he had been a little reluctant at first, the more adolescent than gentleman part of his brain soon came to enjoy the running Susan suggested, mainly because it meant that he'd be following her as she took him through her usual route in clothing that was much more formfitting than robes. While he doubted he would ever tell her, (or at least not any time soon,) he thought Susan had an incredibly sexy figure.

As he was more than a little sweaty and tired, she took pity on him and cut her routine short, leaving them walking along a dozen metres from the edge of the Forbidden Forest after a hasty shower and change. She wasn't really sure why her fingers wouldn't stay still as they held hands, but she kinda liked how it kept her thinking about the two of them as a couple.

For hours they walked, talking about inconsequential things, like complaining about all the homework that the teachers had begun to hand out for their O.W.L. year. Eventually they headed in for dinner, only to return outside again afterwards and continue their time alone together.

It was a bit before curfew when she finally gave in to her aching feet, the two of them taking a seat on the cool grass. The sun had set an hour and a half ago, but the flat and empty grounds weren't an obstacle, even though there was only a sliver of the moon out.

Sitting together, she lowered her head onto his shoulder and felt him lay his own against hers. She felt so very content right then and voiced it, quietly saying, 'I wish today didn't have to end.'

His arm looped around, carefully resting on her side as he held her in a loose hug. 'I enjoyed it too,' was his own quiet reply.

Thoughts of begging him to be with her again tomorrow were hastily squashed in her head. She wouldn't dare risk losing her piece of the man beside her, because he truly was wonderful in ways he probably hadn't realised, more than enough, in her opinion, to have her willing to share.

Still, a niggling doubt left her self-conscious and uncomfortable, so she asked, 'Promise me we can do this again next Wednesday?'

He gently laughed before squeezing her close to him as he whispered, 'I promise,' and she knew he meant it.

* * *

Hermione had a lot to think about that afternoon, though it had all centred on Luna and Harry. There was no denying that Luna was two for two on the girlfriends-that-make-Harry-happy front, but what had her thinking was that they were two girls she wouldn't have thought of at all. What made it worse is that she realised she didn't actually know about any girls other than Ginny, yet Luna seemed to be inundated with information.

That was something she could live with. She always knew she wasn't all that social and certainly not into gossip, because that's what she sorted any information on people who weren't her friends as. No, what really had her thinking was the possibility that Luna was right, that she, Hermione Jean Granger, was high maintenance.

Of course, she didn't necessarily believe it outright, but Luna had given her food for thought and it was that food which she was currently struggling to digest. If she looked at it logically and objectively, she defined "high maintenance" as a girlfriend who took up significantly more than the average amount of her boyfriend's time. That didn't at all help her case as she realised that, if she only had Harry for one day, she would definitely expect him to spend every minute with her – before breakfast, breakfast, lessons (where possible), morning break, lunchtime, afternoon, after curfew, all his time right up until bed.

She knew that it was more, in fact a lot more, than the other two girls had with him, but at the same time it didn't seem like she was being unreasonable. Unfortunately, that still meant she was reasonably high maintenance.

It was at that point that Luna's other comment reappeared and so she looked at it from Harry's perspective. Last night, she had been overly pleased to do homework with Harry, but that was her view, so now she focused on what Harry's view had been.

Struggling at first, she detoured along some of his other decisions she hadn't liked until he explained himself, slowly getting to grips with "Harry-thinking" before looking at the homework with fresh eyes. Frowning, she asked herself, 'He wanted to include me?'

Unlike all her previous eureka moments, it was marred by confused feelings rather than pride and joy, mainly because she felt a bit sick as that idea was merged with the loss of Ron. For nearly four years, Harry had single-handedly kept her and Ron on incredibly amiable terms and he did that by subjugating himself to them both.

She couldn't remember a single time when he wasn't playing chess or studying, well not quite that, but she couldn't often remember doing something _he_ wanted to do. All she knew about him was that he liked flying, not even if he liked Quidditch, just flying, and she couldn't remember a time when he had just flown, not as part of Quidditch training or Ron wanting to play a pick-up game. She didn't know how after four years of friendship her best friend could have only one interest, but then again she did have some ideas about what his childhood was like and none of them were pleasant.

It was depressing in a way that she couldn't describe that she had put herself before Harry for four years without even realising it, or even worse was that she often thought she put Harry before herself. Thinking back, she couldn't find a time when he had ever put himself before her, except maybe the broomstick debacle of third-year, but that had, in a way, been him putting Ron before her.

Sure, she had snuck out and broken rules to help him, but had she not been selfish as she did it to prove to herself she was a Gryffindor _and_ connect more with her only friends? She had stayed by his bed whenever he was injured, but she always told him that; after second year, she only found out he stopped by at least once a day from Madam Pomfrey; had she been doing it as a desperate plea for.. for what? Did she tell Harry to make him aware of how much he meant to her or to try and make her mean more to him?

The more she thought about, the more she didn't want to. She hadn't ever been one for the more philosophical side of things, but for once, just once, she wished she was. Ultimately, she decided, there was only one question that needed to be answered: could she do something that benefited Harry while hurting herself?

Even the broom argument had been about how she couldn't lose him and, while it hurt at first, she had always known that Harry would forgive her. More than that, she knew he would feel indebted if it had been cursed in some way.

Dropping her head in her hands, she felt worse than she could ever remember. Hugging him had never been about showing him she cared; it had always been about satisfying her need to verify he was standing there or to soothe her own worries; more than that, she knew he always reacted coldly to them, one of the things she attributed to his murky past.

In the pits of self-analysis and despair, she wasn't aware of the person sitting opposite her, saying her name. She wasn't even aware when they moved to sit next to her. Eventually, she was only drawn out of the berating of her past actions by the arm wrapped around her and the hand giving her shoulder a light squeeze.

'What's the matter, Hermione?' he gently asked. She couldn't help but laugh, a deep bellowing laughter as all the tension she had built up slowly eased away. It took her nearly a minute to calm down, at which point he asked again, 'What's the matter?' only with much more concern and a certain steel to it.

'It's nothing,' she whispered, rubbing her eyes though she hadn't cried.

She felt him wriggle before sliding his arm down, gentling rubbing the upper part of arm in a way that had her troubles melting away. 'It takes a lot more than nothing to get you so down,' he said.

'I,' she began, but couldn't continue. Her mind was split in two: one part wanted to tell him so he could reassure her; one part wanted to sit here and have him settle her fears through the friendly affection he was offering. Then, a third part, sounding an awful lot like Luna, sprang up and she knew that was the right one. 'I was just doing some thinking and it wasn't the pleasant sort of thinking, but I'll be okay.'

'Are you sure?' he softly asked.

She nodded, mumbling, 'Yes.'

Sitting there with him gave a new perspective on everything she had thought on. There was still the unsettling truth in that she didn't really know him passed his personality, but her actions weren't so selfish anymore. She couldn't speak with facts and logical truths, but with her pride and honour as she vowed to become the friend he deserved, not the pesky librarian or strict teacher or silly fangirl, just Hermione.

While there were many things she knew she could do, there was one she thought was important, especially if she wanted to help him grow emotionally.

'Harry?' she quietly asked.

'Yeah?'

'I want you to tell someone about what it's like at the Dursleys.' She felt his arm falter, muscles tense, demeanour turn frigid. 'Not now, but when you feel comfortable to. If it's me, I won't tell anyone what you tell me and I won't pity or judge you, but I will listen and be honest with you.'

He relaxed slightly, though she could tell he wasn't completely at ease like he was before. 'It's not that I don't trust you, it's just...' he mumbled.

'Unpleasant?' she offered and saw him nod in the corner of her eye. 'I guessed as much, but that's why I think you should tell someone. Talking about things sometimes helps and, well, I want you to be helped, if that makes any sense.'

A weak chuckle escaped him and she was happy to find him warming up again. 'I'll think about it.'

'Thanks.'

'So, what did you want to do?' he asked, his arm finally returning to his side as he wiggled along the couch a bit. 'I've still got a bit of Transfiguration and some _Defense_ work too.'

Nibbling her lip, she asked, 'Well, er, what did you want to do?'

* * *

Small note: again, a thank you for all the reviews! A quick sorry for delay (exams and flu) and I hope I've set Susan up well – if feedback wants a more in-depth look at the days, then I might split this into two chapters and expand, but I think I've achieved a good quality to quantity ratio. For any die-hard Hermione fans, try not to take the self-analysis too hard. I'm not saying she is selfish or anything like that, but I do think a lot of what she's done can be seen in more than one way, certainly with Luna's perception colouring Hermione's hindsight.


	6. Thursday Morning

Thursday dawned early for Harry. He was pretty sure it was his anticipation as, unlike the previous day, he was looking forward to meeting his date for the day. It had surprised him how much his date with Susan had changed him, but he knew it was a good change. Even his upcoming lessons with Snape and Umbridge were unimportant, merely annoying for wasting his time.

The smidgen of light suggested it was a little before seven, but he was too excited to fall back asleep. After tossing and turning for a bit, he gave up on getting more sleep. Having a shower, getting dressed and packing his stuff for the day didn't take long and really didn't make much sense since he didn't have a first lesson, but it was something to waste some time.

Sitting down in the common room, only a few others were there and they were avidly scribbling away with a few books propped open in front of them. With nothing to keep him occupied, he became antsy.

Barely a minute later, he left to return back to his room. He knew he had a while to go until breakfast and, well, his pride was still tender from being outrun by Susan – not sore enough to annoy him really, he knew she exercised a lot, but enough that he wanted to close the gap between them. Not only that, but he realised that he wasn't exactly the most attractive boy (not that he actively took note of that sort of thing) and, even though he had spent the last few years eating well (most of the year) and getting some exercise from climbing stairs and running from certain death, there was definite room for improvement, something he hoped "his girls" (as he had started thinking of them) would appreciate.

A quick glance at the Marauder's Map put the staff in their rooms, most students in their beds (all common rooms had a few early risers) and, oddly, Luna in a room opposite the Ravenclaw common room. It was strange, but Luna did always seem chirpy and awake in the mornings, so he dismissed it.

Putting on the clothes that would be most comfortable for a run, navy blue jogging bottoms Hermione had shrunk to his size and a crimson tank-top, he escaped out into the castle, making his way hastily to the grounds before setting off for some laps around the lake.

He didn't have any accurate measure of how far he had run the previous afternoon, but, from now on, he could keep score of his improvements in terms of laps.

A little over an hour later, he set his bar and decided it would be prudent to have another shower and, from now on, save any showering for after his exercising session.

* * *

Daphne Greengrass had always been a bit of an early riser. At home, the early bird got the best bathroom, which, in a household of four females including her mother, was a prize worth sacrificing a bit of sleep for. At school, it simply meant she could go about her morning routine unmolested, unfortunately in more ways than one.

Slytherin house was not as mighty as it once was. That much was certain for her. It seemed that the current crop of "Slytherins" were pampered children, made to believe that they should be worshipped and respected because their mummy and daddy were first cousins. Unfortunately, with the revival of that Dark Lord (only fools would believe the Ministry's denial when the evidence was staring anyone and everyone in the face,) the egotistical problem of a few was spreading to the many.

If it were just her, Daphne wouldn't care at all. She could easily prove her DADA grades weren't flukes or due to her skill on her back, unlike some of her fellow students and their Potions grades. Her nicknames "Ice Queen" and "Ice Bitch" were thoroughly earned, in both her opinion and that of others.

Unfortunately, life wasn't that simple for her. Astoria was just about two years younger than her, though only in the year below, a result of August and September birthdays. While Astoria certainly took after her sister, often being referred to as "Ice Princess", all it would take is one of the older boys to forget the unwritten rule that you stuck to your own year.

If that wasn't hard enough for Daphne, she had a third sister who was a little over two years younger than Astoria: Phoebe was in her second year and, the only consolation for Daphne, hadn't begun to interest the boys, to put it subtly. Still, Daphne saw how some of the more animalistic boys eyed the younger ones.

That they were all of the Noble House of Greengrass wasn't of any importance when there was no Heir. Well, technically there was, but he was Daphne's great-uncle and wasn't in any position to intimidate the students.

Finishing her morning routine, she sighed, wishing her sisters had taken her request to be sorted into Ravenclaw to heart. She was glad they were proud of her and aspired to be like her, she truly was, but when that put them in danger...

Her musings were cut short as she exited the common room, intent on an early breakfast, only to spy a lone girl.

Not just any lone girl.

Daphne made full use of the gossip network around Hogwarts. Gossip was knowledge and knowledge was power. Truths and lies had little place, it was what people believed was true that was important. Following on from that, people believed that Luna Lovegood, commonly referred to as Loony, was the person establishing Potter's Harem (or Potter's Whores amongst the foolish Slytherins' who were playing with fire.)

Of course, Daphne knew this was a possibility. Seven girls and there was already a balance forming between the selected. She doubted many, or even any, would pick up the numerological references. That didn't mean she wasn't still surprised that Luna would actually choose a Slytherin to be part of it, not that she would let the surprise show as that would be a sign of weakness, a sign that she didn't know.

'Lovegood,' she coldly said.

'Oh good morning Daphne, I was hoping you would be leaving early as usual,' she cheerily replied.

Whether or not Luna knew how to play the Slytherin game wasn't important to Daphne – that there was a Slytherin in the conversation meant it was being played. 'Yes, I'm often awake early, as are you.' She didn't know if it was true, but bluffing and educated guesses were her bread and butter.

Luna smiled. 'I'm here to discuss-'

'Dating Harry Potter? I know why you're here.' There was no reason why Luna would otherwise be here and forcing herself to a dominant position in the conversation was her natural stance.

'Oh? Well that should make things much easier. What is your answer?'

Daphne already knew she would accept so long as Harry would extend his protection to her sisters. She could play submissive and act like a good Pure-blood wife who looked good but didn't talk. To admit as much would lower herself, so instead she said, 'I know my answer and my reasons, but not yours.'

Luna seemed unsurprised by that statement. 'I admit I'm not too familiar with it, but there is a Slytherin political game of sorts, is there not?'

Daphne barely nodded her head.

'Well, then from what I've observed, it's based primarily on a ranking system, with each year being above that of the year below by virtue of age and experience. Generally speaking, the leader of the year is the most politically connected, usually via parents or other close relatives. The magically strongest generally take up subordinate position, then the rest of the year is organised by political connections.'

It was a simple yet succinct summary Daphne thought. 'Rough, but accurate,' she commented, balancing the hidden compliment with a slight critique.

'Harry's magical skill would place him highly in his own year, if not top outright. The tiers in Slytherin have a leader purely because Slytherins covet political power, so they and the powerful students share a symbiotic relationship whereby they both profit – the leader cannot be challenged by brute force and the muscle, for lack of a better word, form a good political connection. Harry, though, isn't a Slytherin, so it is purely a case of strength and, more importantly, skill.

'That's not mentioning that Harry is a year above her, so her peers are thoroughly outclassed and his peers have no reason to be involved. Anyway, this basically means that as long as he is dating her, she is untouchable unless whoever decides otherwise is suicidal, stupid or both.'

Again, Daphne was surprised, only much more so than before. That didn't mean she showed it though; she rolled with the bludger and responded, 'What about once my sister and he are finished?'

A slight frown appeared on Luna's face. 'It's awfully presumptuous to assume they will end before they begin.' Her expression returned to normal, normal for her that is, as she answered, 'If I am correct to say that knowledge is power in Slytherin, then it should be obvious that the information she would gain would be more than sufficient.'

Internally, Daphne added a few more reasons, but she didn't have to let Luna in on everything, or anything for that matter. 'To make sure we are on the same page, why my sister and not myself?' Sometimes it didn't hurt to be direct.

'Politics,' Luna replied. 'As the oldest daughter, wouldn't your romantic involvement signify an alliance between Houses, which you are unable to do without contacting your father?'

She need not share that her father had given her permission to do whatever she thought was best to protect her sisters – he was cunning enough to get himself out of trouble and he always put his family first. 'Indeed.'

'It's also the case that you have a very dominant personality that I don't think would benefit him.'

'While my sister does not?'

Luna tilted her head. 'As recent as yesterday lunchtime she was starring at him. I believe it began after the first task last year.'

Daphne was quite aware of her sister's crush. There had been something symbolic about the boy versus the dragon. Of course, it was nothing compared to the rumours of the boy versus the basilisk, or several other rumours, but they had been just that – rumours. As she knew all too well, seeing was believing in the magical world.

That didn't mean she was at all happy about this. Daphne knew Astoria wanted to be like her and one of those traits her sister took on was the indifference act, one which could cause... friction. 'Where and when?'

A slight smile graced Luna's face. 'The painting of the fruit bowl at eight for breakfast.'

Dipping her head, Daphne confirmed, 'Down the main staircase from the Great Hall.'

Nodding, Luna turned and started skipping off, stopping to say, 'Tara!' before going around a corner.

Sighing, Daphne put off her early breakfast. If her internal clock was correct, she had a little under an hour to hopefully get Astoria to be at least... flexible in her attitude.

* * *

Harry, having cleaned himself up and dressed a little smarter than he had on previous days, made his way down to the hall. Most mornings he'd find Hermione waiting for him in the common room, but as he normally didn't get up early when he didn't have a lesson (unless he had homework to do,) she wasn't there.

Making the journey by himself was odd. He had done it before, though not often. Honestly, he didn't like being by himself as it brought him back to his childhood. Sometimes he still awoke at night, panicking as his grim imagination stretched the curtains surrounding his bed into a cupboard. Hermione had said talking about it may help, but, well, how could he tell anyone that he was scared of enclosed spaces because he had truly thought that his cupboard would be his coffin countless times over his younger years?

It was why he loved flying – the sky was his anti-cupboard. Walking around the grounds was nice too, a pleasant and open area that smelled of nature rather than the sterile smell arising from carpet cleaners, bleaches and a few other cleaners that had once called his old "room" home (it was also the main reason he disliked being in Madam Pomfrey's care.) Most of the castle wasn't a problem either and the few years of freedom had curbed his panic attacks to only when he felt trapped.

Shaking his head, he banished those thoughts away so he could try and get in a happier frame of mind. After all, it wouldn't do to ruin his date with angst and Hermione had told him how annoying he was when he was angsty.

Still, it was some how refreshing to look back at how much he'd grown over the years. There had always been lingering doubts, old habits and raw wounds, yet he was dealing with them; in fact, he had dealt with most of them.

Taking the last few steps down, he caught sight of Luna waiting by the doors. A smile grew without him thinking about it as he loudly said, 'Morning Luna.'

She didn't move, her head still angled to somewhere a little to his side as she replied, 'Good morning Harry.'

'I'm not early, am I?' he asked, closing the gap between them to a pace and a half.

Her head shook. 'Your date is waiting for you near the kitchens for eight, if you shall follow me.'

He was tempted to inform her he knew where the kitchens were, but something held him back. 'So, who is it?' he settled on.

'Shan't say,' she steadily replied. 'I'm afraid I don't know too much about her. Honestly, I am a touch nervous the two of you won't get on, but there isn't much choice in this area. However, I think I can say she has a wicked sense of humour and a healthy repertoire of self-defence spells.'

* * *

Astoria resisted rolling her eyes as her older sister repeated the instructions she was to follow. Honestly, she was a touch nervous about her date, but it wouldn't do to appear weak in front of her sister and the anonymous boy. She trusted her sister, so when Daphne said it was a decent boy who would treat her well if she played "good housewife", she knew it was true.

That didn't mean she had to be babied about it – did Daphne really believe she would infringe on his masculinity? As far as she was concerned, there were two lines in the sand that he couldn't cross and everything else was fair game: no groping unless there was a betrothal contract and no sex until the wedding night.

After all, her virtue would be important in any negotiations her father entered, she knew that. It was an easy decision if abstaining from what would probably be a poor excuse of pleasure could mean the difference between Malfoy, an arrogant fool with delusions of grandeur, and Goldstein, a respected neutral family with two sons around her age who were both excelling in Ravenclaw.

Why her sister felt the need to remind her about this, she didn't know, but it was getting annoying.

So, it was a welcome relief when Daphne finally ended, asking, 'Understood?'

'Yes mother,' she criticised, but it fell on deaf ears as Daphne simply smirked back.

'Then let's go, one mustn't be tardy.'

* * *

'Harry, may I introduce you to Astoria Greengrass, a fourth year Slytherin and the younger sister of Daphne,' Luna airily said, her arm sweeping to indicate the girl awaiting him at the far end of the hallway.

He blinked, surprised, before saying, 'Thanks Luna,' at which point she ceased walking.

His momentum carried him forwards as realisation began sinking in and he became acutely aware of his date's actions and the location of his wand.

Forcing a smile, he greeted, 'Good morning Astoria.'

At least she seemed as surprised as him, her mouth slipping open before asking, 'P-Potter?'

'Yup,' he weakly said. 'Should we go in?'

Her head nodded minutely, mouth still slightly agape. Slowly, he reached over, tickling the pear and opening the door when the handle appeared.

'Ladies first,' he offered, stepping back so she could pass.

Another barely noticeable nod she did and then gracefully entered the kitchens. Following her, they arrived at a small table with a few chairs arranged around it, though a House-Elf removed the extra ones as they approached.

Taking a couple of quick steps, he pulled out her chair and gave her a smile. She turned, an eyebrow raised, and nodded shallowly.

Sitting opposite her, a nervous silence followed.

Collecting herself and eventually getting over her initial daze, she indifferently stated, 'This was not what I was expecting.'

Ruffling his hair, he apologised. 'Sorry, I'm just berating myself for being a hypocrite.'

'Oh?' Not a request, but a sign of interest nonetheless.

'Er, well, the other day I had a go at Hermione for kind of saying a Slytherin had to cheat to do better than her, but now I'm sitting here paranoid about you.'

A wry smile crossed her lips. 'Perhaps you're correct to be paranoid.' Her eyes sparkled when his eyes noticeably widened. 'After all, I believe Professor Moody's favourite phrase last year, bar the one, was, "It's not paranoia if they're out to get you."'

'You're joking, right?' he nervously asked.

'What do you know about me?' she asked instead of answering.

His hand slowly raised to scratch the back of his neck. 'Just that you have "a wicked sense of humour", "a healthy repertoire of self-defence spells" and an older sister.'

'So, what do you think?'

A grin forming, he answered, 'Either you do have a wicked sense of humour or I'll need a healthy repertoire of self-defence spells.'

'You leave a little to be desired, but not a bad bit of wit,' she casually stated, her hand drifting to take a sip from her goblet.

'Didn't know I was being tested,' he quipped, mimicking her as he lifted his goblet.

Hers fell slightly, revealing a teasing smirk. 'When there is a Slytherin in the room, you're playing the game.'

'What game is that?' he asked, leaning back.

'A beginner's guide to politics to put it simply,' she offered, her cutlery coming to hand as she speared an apple slice. 'It's what Slytherins do to pass the time; what about Gryffindors?'

Cutting apart his bacon, he replied, 'Chatting, playing games, a bit of reading.'

'Disappointing,' she critiqued, popping another segment of apple into her mouth. 'That will make it harder to train you, though at least you have some basics already.'

'Train me?' a question asked in disbelief.

Dabbing her mouth with a napkin, she added, 'Yes.' Shifting to the toast in front of her, she slid her knife along a corner, separating it. 'I will give you some leeway as you haven't been immersed with it, but I do expect effort and hard-work from you.'

'What training do I need, exactly,' he dryly asked.

A smirk once more on her lips, she answered, 'Politics.'

'And why is that?'

Her eyes met his, unflinching as she stared at him for several seconds. 'A husband requires skills in politics to manage his household. If we date, it is with the sole intention to see if marriage will be a mutually acceptable outcome. Your actions and inactions leave much to be desired on this front at this point in time.'

Surprisingly straight-forward, it took him a moment to shake the shock and half-mockingly ask, 'Care to tell me so I can fix the error of my ways?'

'Of course, I am here as your support and that is the first. My position is such that I do not make decisions, I merely advise you and you then choose whether or not to follow my judgement. If I am required to make a decision, you must instruct me how I should proceed without bringing to attention that you are doing so.'

Frowning, he asked, 'But when did that happen?'

'You asked if we should go in. In future, something more along the lines of, "We should go in, don't you agree?" is the correct manner. Which brings us onto the second point of domination. In a conversation, both parties are vying for dominance: the ability to lead the conversation to where they wish it to go and the the ability to extract what they want to know from the other person.'

Thinking first, he said, 'You've changed the topic a few times and ignored my questions.'

'Good, you are at least above unskilled. Third point is that knowledge is power. If I have something you want, then I am in control, because even if you have dominance of the conversation, I and I alone set the conditions for exchange. Power is the ability to get what you want with what you have, so the more knowledge you have the more power you have thus the greater your ability to get what you want.'

'So I should be asking myself why you're giving up knowledge?'

Her lips quirked. 'Precisely.'

Ignoring her for the moment, he set about his food, finishing off a couple of strips of bacon and making his way through most of his scrambled egg on toast. 'What you want is a husband who is good at politics and I could be your future husband, so "training me", as you put it, is what you want.'

'Rough, but accurate,' she commented. 'Those last two are a rough guide to politics, a gift of goodwill to you. Back to dating, the male is to take care of tasks of labour and the female the tasks of detail and precision.'

'So I should open doors and carry things while you, er, write letters?'

Her expression dropping slightly, she said, 'Amongst many other things which we can discuss at a later point. Another important point is that you should be comfortable and skilled at flirting.'

'Flirting?' he reflexively questioned.

'Indeed. Care to give me an example of your talent in that area?'

Blushing lightly, he admitted, 'I haven't, er, flirted before, or at least, I don't think I have.'

'What those poor girls must think,' she said lower than normal yet enough to be easily audible to him. 'Allow me to give you an example then.' She looked at his face until he met her eyes, then she trailed her gaze down his body, lingering at the table-edge beyond which was his crotch. 'You are certainly _taller_ than I thought you were,' she said with suggestive emphasis.

That his blush deepened to maroon and a bit of sputtering ensued served only to make her lightly laugh. 'I-I don't think I can do that,' he eventually managed, having calmed down with only a hint of pink on his cheeks.

'It's easy,' she chided. 'All you have to do is pay me a compliment with a subtle innuendo as part of it.'

'But, it's...'

Sighing, she asked, 'Derogative?' His head bobbed softly. 'Well, it is not. The hidden meaning need not be as, shall we say, _personal_ as my example, but so long as you use it as a sign of acknowledging beauty then there is no problem.'

'I, er...'

Scowling, she muttered, 'Too bloody noble,' before instructing him, 'repeat after me: your lips look soft, may I feel them?'

A mixture of embarrassment, relief and humour flared up as he did as he was told. 'Your lips look soft, may I feel them?'

'Good, now this time stare at my lips first, then look me in the eyes as you say it.'

With rosy cheeks, he eyed her ruby-red lips before tilting up to meet her gaze. 'Your lips look soft, may I feel them?'

A sly smile graced her lips as she responded, 'Only if I may make the same offer.'

It gave him a slight surprise, but her arms rose then rested on the table to accommodate her leaning forward and her eyes shimmered with mischief.

'Well, do you accept?' she asked.

Hoping he read the situation correctly, and acting slowly in case not, he too leaned inwards, closing the gap between them to nothing. Despite the discomfort posed by the table, it lasted a fair while before she pulled back.

Looking at her with a hint of a blush on her cheeks, he couldn't help but think she was a suitable princess for a story. She was a bit shorter than him, the top of her head tickling his nose or there about, yet her slender figure made her seem smaller. While not as endowed as Padma or Susan, her robes seemed to highlight what she had while hugging her sides to reveal attractive curves.

It was more her face than the rest of her body that reinforced the princess image though. Her soft nose, pale skin-tone and shoulder-length blonde hair helped emphasise her voluptuous ruby lips and sharp blue eyes. While Susan's were azure, Astoria's were darker, more like sapphire with a hint of passion in them at the moment.

With his eyes always drawn to one or the other, it would be easy to stare.

Yet, she seemed to have the same problem, her eyes meeting his momentarily before dropping slightly and then darting up to start the cycle anew. Somewhat emboldened by levelling the playing field, he asked, 'So you will be training me to be a good husband in front of others, but what about when it's just the two of us and I want to cook us a romantic meal?'

'I,' she began, but paused, thinking. 'I think that would be acceptable.'

Grinning slightly, he asked, 'Would you prefer your chef over or under dressed?' Her blush deepening, he counted it as a win.

* * *

'Luna?' Hermione quietly said. The library was fairly empty (being break,) with no one in their immediate area, but she would prefer not to face the steely gaze of the annoyed librarian.

'You're welcome,' Luna replied, still looking at her book.

Hermione had been about to continue with what she was going to say, but realised that Luna had answered her already, which was... odd. 'How?' she asked, unsure of what exactly to ask beyond that.

Luna removed a daisy from behind her ear, putting it in the book as a marker before shutting it, an action which made Hermione squirm in indignation. 'Considering what we talked about, I thought you were likely to approach me about it.'

'But,' Hermione muttered, taking a seat beside Luna. 'Never mind,' she then conceded, deciding to focus on the important details. 'I just hadn't realised how, well, selfish I had been.'

Patting Hermione's arm in what she hoped was a reassuring manner, Luna answered, 'I never said that you were selfish. Rather I think that Harry is unselfish.' She knew that wouldn't appease Hermione, so added, 'I can't be certain, but I think friends are very important to Harry, far more important than he sees himself.'

'What do you mean?' Hermione asked, though she was already thinking along similar lines.

'This may be a little extreme and unsettling, but do you think Harry would kill Draco?'

Her response was an automatic, instant and firm, 'No.'

'Would he ever kill Ron?'

Knowing that, despite their few falling outs, Harry still did care a lot about his friend in the magical world, barring Hagrid and Hedwig of course, Hermione felt confident when she replied, 'Never.'

Luna pulled her arm back, leaving Hermione isolated as she asked, 'And if Ron raped you?'

It was a horrible thought, one she would have preferred to have never encountered, yet her confidence from before was shattered. Despite her darker thoughts recently, she did still know Harry and, while she felt confident before, it was like she was stating that water was wet as she indifferently said, 'Harry would kill him.'

Waiting a few seconds to watch how Hermione reacted, Luna chose to offer the physical support that Hermione often sort out by placing a hand on her shoulder. 'Like the Soft-footed Gilapidogical Shrew, I think Harry values companionship: if it is the choice between spending time with you or spending time alone, then it doesn't matter what the two of you would do, he would rather spend it with you.'

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle at what was a rather absurd animal and a rather precise opinion on Harry. Then again, she could easily lose count of the number of times he was dragged, no he went with her, to the library to research something or learn a good spell. Ron had always put up the resistance, while Harry had always offered a token resistance to maintain his middle ground which disappeared once they were moving.

'If it were a choice between a book or spending time with Harry, I would choose him every time,' she said.

Smiling, Luna kindly asked, 'Am I the person who you should be telling that?'

Shaking her head, Hermione offered, 'No, but you should know that you're not wasting your time with me.'

'Oh I'd never be wasting my time with you. Even if you hadn't or wouldn't change, Harry would still adore you.'

'Then why am I changing?' Hermione rhetorically asked as she knew why she was, or at least she thought she did, but Luna's enigmatic smile and lack of an answer unsettled that belief.

* * *

Medium note: The continued stream of positive reviews is still greatly appreciated (can't have too much of a good thing.) (A)Storily, I felt like this date needed more context, so will spill into two chapters to prevent excessive squashing and bring into play more Hermione-Luna, Harry-Luna and Hermione-Harry interactions to pad it out. To give a sense of where the story is going, my current (which certainly doesn't mean final) plans have this as primarily fifth-year, followed by a bit of after graduation, followed by a pair of epilogues. Quantity wise, I'm thinking around 20 chapters / 120k words. The selection of girls has also been finalised in my mind and I won't reveal the outcomes of Luna and Hermione (meaning that they both may or may not be one of the seven.) What I will reveal is that there are no plans for any action or adventure – this is a straight-up romcom with a little more emphasis on the rom.

Edit: Huge apology for cut-off, for those checking here first, line is: Grinning slightly, he asked, 'Would you prefer your chef over or under dressed?' Her blush deepening, he counted it as a win.


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